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THE PRINCIPLES 
OF EDUCATION 



BY 



WILLIAM CARL RUEDIGER, Ph.D. 

ASSISTANT PROFESSOR OF EDUCATIONAL PSYCHO- 
LOGY LN THE TEACHERS COLLEGE OF THE 
GEORGE WASHINGTON UNIVERSITY 











•9 , 9 

BOSTON, NEW YORK, AND CHICAGO 

HOUGHTON MIFFLIN COMPANY 



.* 






COPYRIGHT, 1910, BY WILLIAM CARL RUEDIGER 
ALL RIGHTS RESERVED 



©Cl.A25nF;i8 



PREFACE 

The aim of this book is to present an outline of the 
Principles of Education for use in college and normal 
school classes, in reading circles, and in the teacher's 
private professional reading. 

After an introductory chapter which aims to orien- 
tate the student in the field of education, the book at- 
tempts to bring together and organize the leading tend- 
encies .in modern educational thought pertaining to the 
bases, aims, values, and essential content of education; 
to discuss the principles underlying the administration 
of the curriculum; to inquire into the agencies that 
educate ; and to review the fundamental psychological 
principles that underly the teaching process. The stand- 
point of no particular philosophical system is adopted, 
but the material is presented from the point of view of 
inductive science. 

Because footnotes are distracting to many readers, a 
definite attempt has been made to reduce their number 
to the minimum. All explanatory material has been 
woven into the text, while the sources of quotations and 
most of the references to educational literature have 
been indicated within the text by means of key num- 
bers, placed in parentheses, that refer to the Biblio- 
graphy on pages 297-300. The first of these numbers 
is the number assigned to the reference, while the sec- 
ond gives the page within the reference. Thus, (50 : 85) 
would refer to McMurry's " How to Study," page 85. 



vi PREFACE 

In the Bibliography only those titles are included that 
are referred to in the text, and those that are given in 
the collateral reading at the close of the chapters. The 
titles are arranged in alphabetical order and are num- 
bered consecutively. 

At the close of nearly every chapter have been placed 
exercises for study and discussion. These exercises do 
not consist of questions on the text, but they aim rather 
to give problems that caU for the application of the 
principles developed in the text. It is obvious that, for 
want of space, principles cannot be applied very exten- 
sively within a text itself, but as their application forms 
one of the most valuable parts of any theoretical course, 
this should be provided for by means of exercises. These 
exercises bring in the element of concreteness and should 
receive no less conscientious attention than the text it- 
self. 

The book was read in manuscript by Professor Ezra 
Allen, of the School of Pedagogy, Philadelphia ; by Miss 
Frances Jenkins, Supervisor of Elementary Grades, 
Decatur, Illinois ; by Miss Alice Sinclair Botkin, of the 
Central High School, Washington, D. C. ; and by my 
wife. Hazel Pietsch Buediger, to each of whom I cheer- 
fully express my thanks for valuable suggestions. To 
my wife I am further indebted for assistance in proof- 
reading. 

W. C. R. 

The George Washington University, 
Washington, D. C, December, 1909. 



J e 



CONTENTS 

CHAPTER I 

Page 

Introduction : The Teacher's Professional 

CuRRICUIiUM 

1. The need of orientation 1 

2. Trades and professions distinguished 2 

3. The teacher's training : academic specialization ... 5 

4. Basal subjects 7 

5. Professionkl subjects 9 

6. Graduate work* 17 

7. Summary 17 

CHAPTER II 

The Biological Bases of Education 

8. Man and the animal series 20 

9. Development of instiact and intelligence 20 

10. Limitation and specialization of ppwers 24 

11. Twofold function of school 25 

12. Period of infancy 28 

13. Transmissibility of acquired traits • ' 30 

14. Eugenics 33 

15. Summary 35 

CHAPTER III 

The Aim of Education 

16. The aim stated 38 

17. Adjustment the keynote of life 41 

18. Human and animal life contrasted 42 

19. Characteristics of man's life : — 

(a) Re-created environment 42 



viii CONTENTS 

(b) Mental and spiritual life 43 

(c) Moral life 45 

(c?) Man's life progressive 46 

20. Causes of arrested adjustment 47 

21. Remedies: — 

(a) Realization of progress 47 

(b) Apperceptive basis 48 

(c) Dynamic method 50 

22. Progress and the curriculum 51 

23. Meaning of adjustment 52 

24. Summary 54 

CHAPTER IV 

Other Statements of the Aim of Education 

(A) Content Aims 

25. Prevalence of adjustment aim 57 

26. The social aim 58 

27. The moral aim 62 

28. The aim of good character 65 

29. The aim of complete living 67 

30. Conclusion 70 

CHAPTER V 

Other Statements of the Aim of Education 

(B) Formal Aims 

31. Acceptance of formal aims 72 

32. Content and formal aims distinguished 72 

33. The doctrine of unfoldment 74 

34. The doctrine of formal discipline 76 

35. " Discipline " and " training " distinguished .... 76 

36. The doctrine illustrated 77 

37. Formal aims criticised 79 

38. Content side not always omitted 81 

39. Historical considerations 82 



CONTENTS ix 

CHAPTER VI 

The Doctrine of Formal Discipline 

40. - The question at issue 91 

41. The doctrine stated 91 

42. Origin in false psychology 92 

43. Other fallacies 94 

44. The literature classified 95 

45. Deductive discussions 96 

46. Inductive investigations 101 

47. Channels of transfer 112 

48. Conclusion and applications 115 

CHAPTER VII 

The Elemental Educational Values 
(A) Instrumental Values 

49. Need of further analysis 119 

60. Preparatory and introductory values 120 

51. The practical value 122 

52. The socializing value 127 

53. The moral value 129 

54. The conventional value 130 

55. Meaning of " social value " 133 

CHAPTER VIII 

The Elemental Educational Values 
(B) Cultural Values 

56. Instrumental and cultural values distinguished . . . 135 

57. Recognition and terminology 135 

58. The cultural value analyzed 137 

59. The sentimental value 139 

60. The liberalizing value 143 

61. The period of mental reconstruction 146 

62. Conclusion 152 



X CONTENTS 

CHAPTER IX 

The Elemental Educational Values 
(C) Formal Values 

63. Content and formal values distmguished 156 

64. The formal values 156 

65. Relation of form and content values 159 

66. The formal values in the schoolroom 162 

67. Composite ideals 163 

/ CHAPTER X 

The Curriculum 

68. Nature of the curriculum 167 

69. Its scientific determination , 168 

70. Origin of the studies 171 

71. Classification of the studies 176 

72. The curriculum outlined 179 

73. Form and content distinguished 180 

74. The expression subjects 181 

CHAPTER XI 

The Educational Value of the Humanities 

75. Meaning of "subject"; values specific 187 

76. The mother tongue 188 

77. Literature 191 

78. Foreign languages 193 

79. The fine arts 197 

80. The social sciences 201 

CHAPTER XII 

The Educational Value of the Natural Sciences 
AND Philosophy 

81. Mathematics 207 

82. The physical sciences 210 



CONTENTS xi 

83. The earth sciences 213 

84. The biological sciences 214 

85. The mental sciences 220 

86. Logic 220 

87. Philosophy 221 

J CHAPTER XIII 

The Administration of the Curriculum 

88. Curriculum and course of study distinguished . . . 225 

89. Our school system 225 

90. The function of elementary education 227 

91. The function of secondary education 228 

92. The function of higher education 231 

93. Social prescriptions 233 

94. Vocational training 234 

95. Avocational training 236 

96. Effects of education summarized 241 

CHAPTEE XIV 

The Agencies that Educate 

97. The agencies classified 244 

98. The formal agencies of education 245 

99. The evolution of the school 245 

100. The church 253 

101. The home 254 

102. The apprentice system 255 

103. The informal agencies 256 

104. Summary 258 

CHAPTER XV 

The Psychological Bases of Teaching 
(A) Instinct, Interest, Habit 

105. Fundamental bases 260 

106. Instincts and capacities 261 



<» 



xii CONTENTS 

107. Interests 262 

108. Interests and education 263 

109. Right and wrong uses of interest 265 

110. Interest and efiPort 267 

111. Retentiveness 269 

112. Habit formation 270 

CHAPTER XVI 

The Psychological Bases of Teaching 
(B) Memory y Perception^ Inference 

113. Associative memory 276 

114. Pedagogical applications 278 

115. Processes of acquisition 281 

116. Perception 281 

117. Perception in the infant mind 284 ^ 

118. Apperception 287 

119. Selective attention, inference, and reasoning .... 289 

120. Inference and reasoning distinguished 293 

Bibliography and References 297 

Index 301 



THE PEINCIPLES OF EDUCATION 



THE PRINCIPLES OF EDUCATION 



CHAPTEE I 

introduction: the teacher's professional 
curriculum 

I. The Need of Orientation. It is well when begin- 
ning to work in a new department of knowledge to orien- 
tate one's seK by taking a brief view of the entire field 
of which the particular subjectln hand~forms a part. 
Any one field of knowledge, such as history, science, 
or medicine, while it forms an inherent unity, is never- 
theless so large and has such a diversity of aspects that 
it cannot be efficiently pursued as a whole. It must 
be broken up into separate subjects, but when this is 
done, the unity of the whole is likely to be lost to view, 
with a distinct detriment to the student's full appre- 
ciation of the separate parts. One subject cannot be 
properly assimilated without knowing in some measure 
its relation to the other subjects, together with which 
it forms a larger whole. 

What is true of departments of knowledge in general 
is true of education in particular. This field has in re- 
cent years developed into such large proportions, and 
is in addition so highly diverse, that it must be broken 
up into a number of separate subjects in order to be 
effectively mastered. But this process is again likely to 
cause the student to lose sight of the forest for the trees. 



2 THE PRINCIPLES OF EDUCATION 

This danger is enhanced in education by the unsettled, 
and even chaotic, nature of the field as a whole — a 
condition owing to its comparative nevmess. T he exa ct 
-study of educational problems and the professional 
training of teachers, especially as concerns secondary 
and higher education, are still in their initial stages. 
This manifests itself in the lack of a common technical 
nomenclature, and in the fact that the boundary lines 
between the different subjects are seldom drawn twice 
at the same points. A student who has taken an edu- 
cational subject in one school may be obliged to cover 
much of the same ground again when taking a different 
subject in another school; and the term "principles of 
education," for example, may mean one thing in one 
place and quite a different thing in another place. To 
have these facts impressed upon one's mind, one needs 
only to inspect the catalogues of half-a-dozen universi- 
ties having teachers' courses. 

The problem of the content of the educational field 
may be effectively approached by asking of what the pro- 
fessional training of the teacher should consist. What 
are the activities for which the teacher in training must 
prepare, and what are the subjects that will minister 
to this preparation ? This question may be asked here 
just as it may be asked for the prospective physician, 
lawyer, or engineer. In each case the answer ultimately 
consists of a list of subjects and practices that cover 
the various aspects of the student's later professional 
activities. 

2 . .Trades and Prof essLoas Distinguished . A student 
who is seriously preparing for the calling of teaching 
should realize at the outset that he is preparing to enter 
one of the professions. But before he can appreciate 



THE TEACHER'S PROFESSIONAL CURRICULUM S 

the significance of this assertion he must understand 
what is meant by a professional, as distinct from a non- 
professional, calling ; that is, he must understand the dif- 
ference between a profession and a trade. Wherein do 
such callings as medicine, engineering, and architecture, 
on the one hand, differ from such callings as carpenter- 
ing, blacksmithing, and cobbling, on the other ? Clearly 
it ta^^S-lQnger_toperfect one's self in those of the first 
group than in those of the second, but this is not the 
heart of the difference between them ; it is only a result 
of this difference. The heart of the difference between 
them appears to lie in the fact that a profession is 
guided by fundamental p rinciples and laws _Qt nature , 
while a trade i s guided merely by rules a nd directions . 
These rules and directions may ultimately resr'on nat 
ural laws and principles, but the tradesman need not 
be aware of this, neither need he have a systematic 
conception of them. The carpenter following the plans 
of the architect may do so by rule of thumb, and the 
cobbler and the blacksmith may, and usually do, learn 
their trades by following rules and directions spasmod- 
ically given. The sciences that ultimately dictate these 
rules and directions they need not understand, and they 
may even be unaware of their existence. 

But in the calhngs to which we attach the term pro- 
fessional, the situation is radically different. The suc- 
cessful architect cannot make his plans by rule of thumb. 
He can seldom use the same plan twice, or adopt the 
plan of another, but he is continually called upon to 
produce something new, or at least to vary his plans in 
some significant degree. In doing this he is guided by 
the abstract principles of a number of sciences, espe- 
cially mechanics and aesthetics, and he is obliged to pos- 



4 THE PRINCIPLES OF EDUCATION 

sess a certain amount of skill in drafting and sketching. 
In order to have the principles that he uses effectively 
at his command, he must have complete and systematic 
conceptions of the sciences to which they belong, and he 
must also master in a systematic manner a conspicuous 
amount of technic in learning to draft and to sketch. 
All this not only takes time, — time measured by years 
rather than by weeks or months, — but also arduous 
study and painstaking practice. 

What is true of architecture is true correspondingly 
of medicine, engineering, teaching, and the rest of the 
professions. Every profession involves both theoreti- 
cal and practical aspects that must be systematically 
acquired to be maximally serviceable. Medicine is ulti- 
mately based on such sciences as chemistry, botany, 
zoology, bacteriology, anatomy, and physiology, while 
engineering rests on physics, mechanics, chemistry, 
geology, and astronomy. But a knowledge of these sci- 
ences in themselves does not make the professional man. 
These sciences do little more than lay the basis for 
professional study. In medicine, bacteriology, anatomy, 
and physiology lay the basis for pathology ; botany and 
chemistry for materia medica ; anatomy and physiology 
for surgery, and so on. But even these professional sub- 
jects do not complete the circuit in the training of the 
physician and surgeon. These subjects must be liber- 
ally and systematically supplemented by attendance 
upon clinics and by actual practice under guidance. A 
hospital appointment is beginning to be looked upon as 
not only desirable, but as essential in the rounded train- 
ing of the doctor of medicine ; and the engineer must 
pass through three corresponding phases of culture. 

Now the point of this discussion is that preparation. 



THE TEACHER'S PROFESSIONAL CURRICULUM 5 

not only for medicine and engineering, but for all the 
professions, teaching included, involves these three phases 
of culture. Every profession is based upon a n ^ irphp.r nf 
the pure sciences that mu st be mastered , it demands the 
comprehension oi: a bod y of professional thenry in tEe 
form of applied sciences, and it requires systematic train- 
ing or practice unde r guidance.^ 

3. The'Teaciier's Training : Academic Specialization. 
From these threefold requirements, teaching as a profes- 
sion is not only not exempt, but it may be said to involve 
four, instead of three, distinct phases of professional cul- 
ture. The additional phase is academic specialization.^ 
In common with all men that occupy positions of trust 
and responsibility in the community, the teacher needs 
breadth of culture, both to enrich his own life and to 
become an agreeable and generally influential member 
of society ; but mere breadth of culture is not sufficient 
for him. Practically every teacher above the elementary 
school specializes in the subjects that he teaches, and 
where departmental teaching prevails, this specializa- 
tion is present also in the elementary school. Supervi- 
sors of music, drawing, manual training, and the like, 
are obviously specialists. But all teachers, including 
even those of the primary grades, are vitally concerned 
in the teaching of subject-matter, thus using at least a 
part of what they have learned in a professional way 
by making it their business to impart it to others. The 
subjects that a teacher teaches form the stock in trade 
that he uses in plying his vocation, and they must, for 
him, be regarded as professional. 

The professional aspect of a part of the academic 
work of the teacher is recognized by teachers' training 
schools in two ways. It is recognized by providing pro- 



6 THE PRINCIPLES OF EDUCATION 

fessional reviews in the subjects that the student will 
be called upon to teach, and by arranging the work so 
that a large part of it will be grouped about a few re- 
lated topics, usually one major, and one or two minors. 
The former practice is most common in normal schools, 
although not restricted to them, while the latter is 
prevalent in colleges. The specialization provided for 
by colleges not only insures adequate preparation in the 
student's specialty, but it also serves the ends of culture 
most effectively. In order to be socially effective and 
personally satisfactory, one's knowledge must be unified, 
and for this unification a core composed of the intensive 
study of at least a few subjects is necessary. 

The amoujitot academic preparation that the teacher 
needs IS quite indeterminate. It necessarily varies with 
tEe^rade of school and the subjects that he wishes to 
teach. In general it may be said that the teacher should 
not only know the subjects that he wishes to teach, but 
also those upon which these subjects depend and those 
that are in other ways closely related. The teacher of 
English, for example, should know some of the ancient 
and other modern languages, and the teacher of arith- 
metic should know at least algebra and geometry. No 
definite standards for the various grades of school have 
as yet been evolved in this country, although they are 
becoming manifest in several directions. For reasons 
of ease in application, these standards are by custom 
measured by time, rather than by academic prescriptions, 
but not without losing sight of the academic needs. It 
is quite generally demanded now that the grade teach- 
ers in city systems, and even in progressive country 
districts, have at least a normal school diploma. This 
diploma stands for approximately two years of prepara- 



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THE TEACHER'S PROFESSIONAL CURRICULUM 7 

tion beyond the four-year high school. These two years 
include the time for the more strictly professional sub- 
jects, to which about half the student's energy is given. 
For country school teachers a less amount of preparation 
is being provided in some places, notably in Wiscon- 
sin. This is done by means of county training schools, 
which admit from the eighth grade, and grant a diploma 
after the completion of a two-year course. Similar 
courses are also provided in some of the normal schools 
in various parts of the country, and not a few of the 
high schools offer elementary work in pedagogy suitable 
for the teacher of a district school. 

For high school teachers, preparation equivalent to 
the standard bachelor^s degree is being more and more 
demanded. Rules making this demand obligatory are 
now on the minutes of many school boards. This is the 
minimum. For the high schools in the larger cities, 
applicants holding the master's, and even the doctor's, 
degree are preferred. 

4. Basal S ubjec ts. Among the subjects that bear so 
close a relation to the prof essional training of the teacher 
that they may be said to form its base should be men- 
tioned biology, sociology, philosoph y, logic , ethics, and 
psych ology. Education is largely a biological and socio- 
logicar"function. a nd tneretore it is hig-hly desirable 
that the teacher should include in his academic pre- 
paration introductory courses in biology and sociology. 
Sociology, assisted by biology, lays the foundation for 
the appreciation of the meaning, aim, and value of 
education ; and biology in addition lays the basis for 
psychology, makes explicit the fundamental principles 
of development, and introduces the student to the evo- 
lutionary point of view, without which one cannot fully 



8 THE PRINCIPLES OF EDUCATION 

understand education or have a sympathetic appreciar 
tion of modern culture. Some physiology and neurology 
are needed as a basis for psychology and school hygiene, 
but it may not be necessary to provide for these sub- 
jects explicitly in the teacher's course. Physiology is 
so generally included in our schools that an elementary 
knowledge of the subject may usually be depended upon, 
while the text-books in psychology usually cover the 
needed parts of neurology. 

Ethics, logic, and philosophy are also desirable as ele- 
ments in the teacher's training. The history of philo- 
sophy gives a conspectus of the development of man's 
conception of the meaning and value of reality, life, and 
mind, and so forms an almost indispensable correlate 
of the history of education; logic, inductive and de- 
ductive, is necessary for the thorough understanding of 
the typical methods of instruction ; while ethics supplies 
some essential elements for the aim of education, and 
is needed every day in the schoolroom. A study of the 
problems of philosophy serves to bring out the inter- 
relationships and the ultimate nature of the detached 
elements of knowledge dealt with by the various school 
subjects, and therefore is of great value to the teacher in 
making all of his instruction more vital and meaningful. 

Psychology may be said to form the connecting link 
between the basal and the professional subjects in the 
teacher's course. As a pure science it belongs logically 
in the basal group, but its value to teachers is so great 
that for reasons of expediency it is usually classed with 
the professional subjects. The subject gives a know- 
ledge of the known facts and principles of the mind, 
and as it is the teacher's immediate function to bring 
about mental changes, — changes pertaining to both 



THE TEACHER'S PROFESSIOxNAL CURRICULUM 9 

knowledge and character, — he must know psychology \ 
if he wishes to proceed intelligently. Mere empirical 
knowledge is as inadequate here as it is in agriculture, 
medicine, or engineering. Just as the engineer profits 
by the facts and principles of mechanics, so the teacher 
profits by the facts and principles of psychology. 

A subject that is still more closely related to the pro- 
fessional subjects for teaching than general psychology 
is child psychology. This subject is usually pursued as 
a pure science, and for the purpose of obtaining guiding 
principles for teaching in one and the same class ; hence it 
is immaterial in which group it is classified. Because the 
subject is still in the process of emerging from the pupa 
state of " child study," it does not yet command the full 
respect of scholars, but it presents a body of facts and 
principles of which no teacher can afford to be ignorant. 
The teacher deals not only with mind, but with child 
mind, which makes the subject particularly valuable for 
elementary and for high school teachers. It concerns 
high school teachers because it treats the period of ado- 
lescence, the period of development in which practically 
all high school students find themselves. 

5. Professional Subjects. The distinction between, 
and the relation of, the basal and the professional sub- 
jects have been implied throughout the preceding section. 
These two groups are distinguished by the fact that the 
basal subjects always consist of pures(si£jiges, or sub- 
jects that deal wi th kno^j^dge^icu a primary way for 
the purposeof^^^nalizing it and making it expli- 
citly in^elRgible, while' the professiona^ubiec^s consist 
of ap plied sciences, o r subjectsThat deal with know- 
ledg?^5R^ecSa^y way for the purpose of applying 
it consistently and effectively to the practical problems 



10 THE PRINCIPLES OF EDUCATION 

of life. As examples of the basal subjects may be men- 
tioned mathematics, physics, psychology, logic, and his- 
tory ; and of the professional subjects. Steam Engineering 
and the Principles of Teaching. The interrelation of 
the two groups is made evident by the examples given. 
The professional subjects get their data from the basal 
subjects. Thus Steam Engineering gets its data from 
mathematics and physics, while the Principles of Teach- 
ing gets its data primarily from psychology and logic. 
One applied science is usually based on a number of 
pure sciences. 
f Education as a professional study and practice has 
(1) a theory of aims, values, and content ; (2) a theory 
of instruction and training; (3) a history; (4) a theory 
of management and control ; and (5) a technic of prac- 
tice. The efficient teacher (1) must know the end he 
is striving to acliieve and what the values ot the various 
studies are in ministering to the achievement of that 
end ; (2) he must know th e principles of effective in - 
struction and of the development of character; (3) he 
"must understand t he historical de v elopment _o f his call- 
ing; (4) he must know how t ojaa^na g ea school eco- 
nomically as regards time, energy, and health, and how 
to cooperate intelligently with his professional superiors 
and with the community ; and (5) he must Juifiggggg 
train ft( ^ skil^ in applying the facts and principles 
involved in the topics just mentioned. 
"-^The subject that deals with the aims, values, and con- 
tent of education is now usually caUed Principles of 
Education. This subject gets its data chiefly from bio- 
logy, sociology, psychology, and ethics, and it tells us 
of the biological bases of education, of the place that 
education does and should hold in society, of the end 



THE TEACHER'S PROFESSIONAL CURRICULUM 11 

that it is trying to achieve, of the elemental values that 
are used in the selection of subject-matter, and of the 
essential content and significance of the curriculum. 
It is the broadest and most unifying subject in the 
teacher's professional curriculum, and for that reason 
some prefer to call it " philosophy of education." The 
pages of this book are occupied primarily with this 
subject. 

To the student who is going to be engaged princi- 
pally as a classroom teacher it may seem that a know- 
ledge of the aims, values, and content of education will 
be of but little practical use. He may observe that the 
subject-matter of the curriculum is determined by those 
higher in authority and by social forces outside the 
school, and that the teacher usually has little power to 
modify it. But this does not constitute a ground for 
his remaining ignorant of its underlying principles. A ' 
teacher cannot work intelligently in any part of the 
school system without appreciating in some definite de- 
gree the purpose and function of education as a whole. 
He is no mere wheel in a machine, but an intelligent 
worker, aiming to assist in the achievement of the pur- 
pose of the whole. 

Methods of teaching,^ too, are in many instances 
dependent upon what one understands-± a,bft-^e aim xd£. 
education. A teacher who conceives the aim of educa- 
tion to be acquaintance with environment is likely to 
teach physics, for example, quite differently from one 
who conceives the aim to be mental discipline. It is 
because of this relation that the Principles of Educa- 
tion should logically precede the Principles of Teaching. 

The subject that deals with the theory of imparting i 
instruction and of developing character is now usually 



12 THE PRINCIPLES OF EDUCATION 

I called either Principles of Teaching or Educational 
^-Psychology. The subject applies the facts and princi- 
(ples of psychology to teaching, which in so far justi- 
fies the latter designation, but it does not get all of its 
data from psychology. As we have just seen, it gets 
some from the Principles of Education, while logic 
furnishes others. What we literally have here are the 
principles of teaching, or of imparting instruction, and 
therefore the former designation is logically the better 
one. (See p. 174.) 

CThe function of the Principles of Teaching is to assist 
the teacher in becoming an intelligent, resourceful, and 
progressive worker in the immediate task of classroom 
teaching and of training in conduct. The Principles of 
Education and the Principles of Te achinghave been 
tersew distinguishe^b^aymgtnat the former deals 
with %lLiej what and wh ^oi education, while the latter 
deals with th e how (76 : 2).^ Together these two sub- 
jects form the backbone of the teacher's professional 
curriculum on the theoretical side, 
( The History of Education is a subject whose nature 
IS sufficiently explained by its title. The subject gives 
a view of what education has been in the leading nations 
and epochs of the past, what aims and methods have 
been dominant and why, what have been the causes of 
success and of failure, and how the present problems, 
aims, and practices of education have come into existence. 
Little that is presented is directly applicable in practice, 
but its value, both to the individual teacher and to the 
profession, is great, nevertheless. (1) It gives a common 

1 These figures refer to references given on pages 297-300. The first 
number refers to the number of the reference and the second to the 
page in the reference. 



THE TEACHER'S PROFESSIONAL CURRICULUM 13 

historical background to the profession, thus adding con- 
ventional elements to the teacher's life, and ministering 
to the social consciousness and professional spirit of the 
group ; (2) leaders like Socrates, Pestalozzi, and Horace 
Mann serve as an inspiration to all who make their real 
acquaintance ; and (3) educational values and practices 
are seen not to be absolute and fixed, but relative to the 
social and political life of the times, although the under- 
lying principles are ever the same. On the more practical 
side the subject (4) aids in selecting successful and in 
discarding unsuccessful methods ; and (5) it helps in 
understanding a variety of pending problems that cannot 
be adequately understood or managed without a know- / 
ledge of their historical origin and growth. Such prob- 
lems are the doctrine of formal discipline, the relation 
of interest and effort, the teacher's attitude toward 
the child, and the place of the classical languages in the 
curriculum. 

The theory o f managemen t and control in education 
may be split up into four distinct subjects, but by form- 
ing combinations they are in actual teaching frequently 
reduced in number to three, or even two. (The four sub- 
jects are School Management, School Hygiene, School 
Administration, and School Supervision.) 

School Management, also designated Classroom Man-\ 
agement and School Economy, deals with the principles 
and practices of managing the classroom with a minimum 
of friction and loss of time. Its aim is quick, quiet, and 
harmonious control. The teacher in training can gain 
much here from the experiences and experiments of 
others as recorded in text-books, and without the know- 
ledge so gained he is likely to commit many blunders 
that he might otherwise have avoided. School Law is 



14 THE PRINCIPLES OF EDUCATION 

frequently treated in connection with School Manage- 
ment, but it may also be combined with School Admin- 
istration. 

Z' School Hygiene deals with the physical care and 
Lwelfare of the pupils of the school, and through thera 
reaches the home and society at large. It is closely 
related to school management, with which subject it is 
often combined. As an element in the teacher's train- 
ing, this subject is still far from having achieved the 
recognition it deserves. The teacher needs not only to 
know the psychology of nourishment and fatigue, how 
to adjust desks, how to heat and ventilate a schoolroom, 
but also how to test for defects in the senses and the nasal 
passages, and how to detect the beginning of certain con- 
tagious diseases. To this end it would be well to have the 
course given by one who has taken a degree in medicine ; 
but if this cannot be had, it should be given by one who 
has at least had thorough training in general bacteriology, 
physiology, and psychology. 

C School Administration deals, or should deal, with a 
mparative study of the organization, administration, 
and support of state, city, county, district, and foreign 
school systems. It has to do with the getting together 
of the educational plant, and with the operation of that 
plant on the social or external side. In this respect it 
forms the complement of Management and Supervision. 
School Supervision is only just beginning to be dif- 
ferentiated from the somewhat amorphous fields of 
Administration and Management. It is of most vital con- 
cern to superintendents and principals, but it is well for 
all teachers to be acquainted with its leading principles, 
so that they may be better able to work in intelligent and 
sympathetic harmony with the efforts of their supervisors. 



THE TEACHER'S PROFESSIONAL CURRICULUM 15 

We have now in a brief way discussed four out of the 
five topics that we mentioned on page 10 as comprising 
the nodal points in the teacher's training in professional 
theory and practice. The topic that we have not yet dis- 
cussed is the technic of practice. This should logically be 
discussed next, but it is seldom that the transition from 
theory to practice is made as abruptly as the interrelation 
of these topics would indicate. Between theory and prac- 
tice one or two additional subjects are usually interposed, 
thus breaking the abruptness of the transition. These • 
subjects may be designated Special Method and Profes- 
sional Reviews. \ 

There is as yet no clear line of demarcation between 
Special Method and Professional Reviews, and by some 
these terms are used synonymously. As here used, the 
term " professional reviews " applies to courses that are 
devoted primarily to the review of subject-matter, while 
" special method " applies to those courses whose func- 
tion it is to select the appropriate elements from the 
other professional courses pursued, and to focus them 
down to the problems that a particular group of students 
will meet. The contents of any particular course in 
Special Method wiU needs vary with the grade and type 
of school in which the members of the class are prepar- 
ing to teach. This gives us courses in secondary edu- 
cation, elementary education, industrial education, the 
teaching of English, and so on. 

Th e, courses in Special Method naturally come latg. 
in the teacher's training. They should come after most 
of the other theoretical subjects have been completed, for 
they rest upon them. But students usually want to rush 
into this work first, thinking that learning to teach is 
learning some knack or device instead of the application 



16 THE PRINCIPLES OF EDUCATION 

of laboriously acquired principles. There is no short cut 
to intelligent teaching. 

Professional Reviews we have briefly discussed under 
academic specialization in section three, where the sub- 
ject properly belongs. 

The practical side of the teacher's training is supplied 
by Observation and by Practice Teaching. The system- 
atic observation of expert teaching forms an indispensa-i 
ble introduction to, and accompaniment of, the practice! 
teaching, and it is also essential for the appreciation 
and assimilation of educational theory. The work is 
more easily provided for than the practice teaching, and 
about eighty-five per cent of the colleges and universities 
having teachers' courses offer it (26 : 39 f.). 

The capstone of the teacher's training is formed by 
the course in practice under guidance. This is as essen- 
tial in the right training of the teacher as the hospital 
practice is for the physician or the shop work for the 
engineer. Without it the student feels no vital need for 
the theoretical work, and so cannot properly assimilate 
and retain it. It might even be maintained that without 
it the student had better go out and get some practical 
experience before systematically taking up the profes- 
sional work. Even a year of teaching goes far in laying 
the basis for the assimilation of theory. But beyond 
question, the best method is to let the practice run along- 
side of the later theoretical work. 

By having the first teaching done under intelligent 
and sympathetic guidance, much is gained for the teacher. 
(1) H e will be led to form the con nection between theory 
^nd practic e, and (2) he will b e started off wit hj-ight 
teaching habits. In the writer's experience as a super- 
visor of practice teachers, he could almost invariably tell 



THE TEACHER'S PROFESSIONAL CURRICULUM 17 

whether a student had taught before or not, even though 
he had no previous knowledge of the fact. He could do 
this by the difficulty that was experienced in breaking 
habits, such as repeating the answers of the pupils. If 
a student had taught much, it seemed in many cases 
quite impossible to reform habits. 

The connection between theory and practice is seldom 
formed effectively by the student himself. He may know 
all about the theory of the development, study, review, 
and drill lessons, but without assistance he wastes much 
time in learning where and how to apply this theory, and 
often fails altogether. The work is universally required 
in normal schools, and about sixty per cent of the uni- 
versities having teachers' courses also offer it (21, 23, 
and 26 : 3 f.). 

6. Graduate Work. It has been the aim here to present 
an outline only of the undergraduate work in the teacher's 
course. In the graduate department a variety of other 
courses is naturally provided, and considerable deviation 
may prevail. Still, even graduate work is not entirely 
chaotic. It naturally falls into two or three cycles. The 
first cycle should lead the student into a broad acquaint- 
ance with his specialty, introducing him particularly 
to special treatises and to monographic literature ; the 
second cycle should instruct him in methods of research 
and give him practice therein, carrying along with this 
a review of the literature of the special topics investi- 
gated ; and if a third cycle is provided, it should be a 
seminar where students and teachers come together for 
the discussion and criticism of original work. 

7. Summary. The teacher's professional curriculum 
as discussed in this chapter may be summarized by the 
following outline : — 



18 



THE PRINCIPLES OF EDUCATION 

' General Culture 



1. Academic Preparation ^ 



Professional 



2. Professional Theory 



3. Technic of Practice 



(Specialization and 
Reviews) 

^ Basal Subjects 



Biology 
Sociology 
Philosophy 
Ethics 
Logic 

Psychology 
^ Child Psychology 

Principles of Education 

Principles of Teaching 

History of Education 

School Management 

School Hygiene 

School Administration 

School Supervision 

Special Method 
r Observation 

[_ Practice Teaching 



EXERCISES 

1. Name some callings that are on the road toward becom- 
ing professions. 

2. What topics should the college course in secondary edu- 
cation discuss ? 

3. What is genetic psychology ? Should it have a place in 
the teacher's curriculum ? 

4. What are the relative functions of the normal school 
and the college in the training of teachers ? 

5. How much time should be given to each of the subjects 
in the teacher's professional curriculum ? 

6. For whom would professional reviews be more necessary, 
for elementary or for high school teachers ? Why ? 

7. To what extent should the academic subjects in the 
teacher's course be prescribed and to what extent elective ? 
The professional subjects ? 

8. Compare the technical professional training needed by 
the following : teacher, lawyer, engineer, physician, farmer, 
clergyman, business man. 



THE TEACHER'S PROFESSIONAL CURRICULUM 19 

9. In the teacher's course, should the professional work fol- 
low or run parallel with the academic work ? In the medical 
course ? In the engineering course ? 

10. Where is the professional training of the teacher 
needed most, in the grades, the high school, or the college ? 
Why ? To what extent is professional training now required 
for these three types of schools ? 

11. If the professional work outlined above is too extensive 
for normal schools, how might it be abridged? Should it, 
perhaps, be supplemented ? If so, how ? Might another sub- 
ject, called perhaps General Method, be placed between the 
Principles of Teaching and Special Method? 

COLLATERAL READING 

Brown, The American High School, 193-220. 

Hanus, a Modern School, 251-284. 

HoRNE, Philosophy of Education, 1-17. 

HoRNE, Psychological Principles of Education, 23-29. 

Report of Committee of Fifteen, 19-39. 

Thorndike, Principles of Teaching, 1-100. 



CHAPTER II 

THE BIOLOGICAL BASES OF EDUCATION 

8. Man and the Animal Series. Education is fun- 
damentally a biological process, and is made possible 
by biological conditions. Man is no longer regarded as 
standing off from the rest of creation, subject to laws and 
influences peculiar to himself, but he is now regarded 
as an integral part of the animal series, subject to the 
laws and conditions of that series. He is the highest pro- 
duct of evolution, and differs from the other animals only 
in degree. His bodily equipment is manifestly similar to 
that of the other ^vfeo-tebrates, the similarity increasing 
as one ascends in the animal scale, but there is every 
reason to think that the similarity extends to the funda- 
mental psychologi cal powe jrs-aadjnstincts as well. Man 
has no mo re sense organs than the other animals, and 
it IS highly probable that he Is supplied with lib futida- 
mental impulse or capacity that is not present at least in 
embryo in the other vertebrates. In the powers^ofjoiow- 
ing a nd of refined feel ing^ he proBably'alwiys talies first 
piacga^ut this is not necessarily true in the powers of 
sense. The eagle outranks him in acuity of vision, and 
the dog has a keener sense of smell. 

9. Development of Instinct and Intelligence. The 
powers that have given man the advantage over the lower 
animals are mental rather than physical. They have re- 
sulted from the influences of natural selection acting upon 
chance variations in the cerebrum. This organ has been 



THE BIOLOGICAL BASES OF EDUCATION 21 

developed in man much farther than in any other animal, 
and with this development man's mental powers have 
kept pace. The hemispheres have become the organs of 
intelligence and free ideas, aware of the aims and con- 
ditions of life. They have become a storehouse for know- 
ledge, and are therefore the basis for the capacity for 
education. They are the physical substratum of the 
mind of man with its powers of retention and organi- 
zation, of reason and deliberation, of making a permanent 
objective record of experiences, of communication, and 
of refined feeling. Man is thus enabled to conserve the 
achievements of the race, which makes possible a social- 
historical life of progress no longer solely dependent 
upon the chance variation in anatomical structure. 

Just where in the animal series the factor of intelli- 
gence, or the capacity to profit by experience, begins, 
it is difficult to say. It is probably not entirely absent 
anywhere, but it does not become conspicuous until we 
come to the vertebrates. The behavior of the animals 
below the vertebrates, and much of that of the verte- 
brates, is more akin to that of machines than that of 
rational beings. They all, except the very lowest, have 
some kind of nervous systems, but these work mechan- 
ically, and are seldom, if ever, guided by conscious 
choice. They are little more than paths for the ready 
transmission of stimuli, and centers for their coordi- 
nation. When light stimulations strike the eye of an 
insect, such as a moth, they mechanically set off adjust- 
ments that carry the insect straight toward the source 
of the stimulations. If the insect gets burned, it appears 
to have little, if any, power to profit by that experience 
in the future. A slight burn will redirect its flight, but 
that, too, appears to be done mechanically. 



22 THE PRINCIPLES OF EDUCATION 

1 The basis of instinct, as of all mental activity, is, of 
^ course, the nervous system. Were the histology of the 
brain and nerves sufficiently known, we could speak of 
(^ instincts, thoughts, and feelings in terms of nerve 
, structure and nerve action. There is a physical basis 
for mental function just as there is for physiological 
function. An animal is as much provided by heredity 
with its capacities to feel and to act on the basis of 
nerve impulses as it is with capacities to breathe, to 
eat, and to digest food. Both equally and similarly 
follow the laws of hereditary transmission and of varia- 
tion. They have both come into existence through vari- 
ation and selection. The basis of selection has been 
adaptation to environment in one as in the other. 

The primordial variation toward differentiated nerve 
tissue in the multicellular hydroids proved to be a 
variation in the right direction. It was not only se- 
lected, but it continued to vary in the direction in 
which it made so happy a start. The nerve structure 
and the parallel Jnstinctive adaptations have become 
ever more complex, till they have given us the variety 
of instinctive responses that we see in the animal world 
about us. 

But variations in mere instinctive _or mechanical 

complexity wer6 Il6F^owed~"t5'monopoHze the field. 

At some point there appeared a variation, inherent in^. 

the nervous system like the rest, that enabled the ani- 

* mal to profit by the experiences of the past. This was 

1 the birth of intelligence. Like the appearance of the 

j first nerve tissue, this variation prospered, was selected, 

and continued to vary manward. Its development has 

released man from the dependence on blind instinct 

for adaptation to his environment, and has made it 



THE BIOLOGICAL BASES OF EDUCATION 23 

possible for him to guide his life largely by means of 
knowledge. But it should not be understood that the 
feeling instincts have been eliminated by this guidance. 
On the contrary, these_instincts have apparently kept 
pace with the intellect in their development, and they 
continue to play a most fundamental role in the life of 
man. It .would not be far from the truth to say tha 
they (pe-4^ life of man that is guided by means of 
knowledge and intelligence. 

With the growth of the hemispheres and the consequent 
development of intelligence there has come a reduc- 
tion of the number of reflex and instinctive adjust- 
ments inherent in the lower centers. Those adjust- 
ments that need to be unhesitating and reflex, such as 
the heart beat and the control of digestion, have been 
retained by the lower centers, but those that may par- 
ticipate in the conscious adjustment to a varying envi- 
ronment have been passed forward to the hemispheres. 
" In this way it might come about that in man and in 
monkeys the basal ganglia should do fewer things by 
themselves than they can do in dogs, fewer in dogs 
than in rabbits, fewer in rabbits than in hawks, fewer 
in hawks than in pigeons, fewer in pigeons than in frogs, 
fewer in frogs than in fishes, and that the hemispheres 
should correspondingly do more" (39: 79). The signi- 
ficance of this for education is at once evident. While 
certain adjustments have been left to the realm of 
unconscious and mechanical control, others have be- 
come amenable to the guiding influences of knowledge 
and intelligence, and so to education. 

The advantage of the combination of instinct and re- 
flective intelligence over instinct alone is thus not hard 
to see. It enables a power of adaptation to a complex 




U THE PRINCIPLES OF EDUCATION 

and variable environment for which the mechanical 
adaptation of instinct alone, no matter how complex,^ 
would be quite unequal. In making his adaptations, 
man is not restricted to the guidance of his own past 
experiences, but those of others and of generations gone 
before are likewise open to his appropriation. The ulti- 
mate function of knowledge is to modify action, to ena- 
ble better adaptation to environment and life. Unless 
knowledge has resulted in improved action, or has made 
the recipient a better person to live with, the effort in 
imparting and acquiring it has been wasted, so far as 
society is concerned at least. Educated mind is the most 
efficient organ of adaptation that man has. It has 
enabled him to survive, to multiply, and to subdue the 
earth in spite of the greater strength, endurance, swift- 
ness, and keenness of sense of many of the lower 
animals. 
I 10. Limitation and Specialization of Powers. But 
I while nature has dealt generously with man in his en- 
dowment of educational capacity, we must not lose sight 
of the fact that this endowment is neither uniform nor 
unlimited. As we go from person to person, we find that 
powers are both specialized and of varying degrees of 
strength. There are some who have ten talents, some 
who have five, and some who have only one, and the 
talents vary greatly in coinage. Those of one will pur- 
chase ability in science, those of another in literature, 
those of another in business, and so on ; and there are 
limits to the purchasing power of all. Education reveals 
many inequalities for which it is in no wise to blame, 
and which it is powerless to remove. All it can do is to 
furnish the opportunities and conditions for acquisition, 
but both the amount and the direction of acquisition 



THE BIOLOGICAL BASES OF EDUCATION 25 

are relative to the capacity or individuality of the per- 
son concerned. This has long been recognized, and it 
has been well expressed by Rosenkranz, who says: 
" Whatever does not exist in this individuality as a 
possibility cannot be developed from it. Education can 
only lead and assist ; it cannot create. What nature 
has denied to a man, education cannot give him, any 
more than it is able, on the other hand, to annihilate 
entirely his original gifts, although it is true that his 
talents may be suppressed, distorted, and measurably 
destroyed^' (65 : 47). 

This principle is generally recognized by parents and 
teachers on the intellectual side, but is sometimes for- 
gotten on the aesthetic, moral, and religious sides, where 
it no less holds. It is quite as impossible to make a 
saint out of a child with scant native endowment for 
moral appreciation as it is to make an intellectual 
genius out of a born idiot. But this is no argument 
or excuse for inferior pains or willful withholding of 
opportunity. The best results will still follow the best 
efforts. It is furthermore true that the capacities of no 
individual can be gauged absolutely beforehand. Powers 
may be present that neither the teacher nor the pupil 
himself suspects. 

II. T wofold Function of School. Growing out of 
the limitation and specialization of mental powers, we 
get the selective function of education. In preparing 
the rising gen^ation for the activities of life, educa- 
tion has a twofold function to perform ; it must both 
instruct and select. It gives the needed equipment 
oi knbwledge"and skill, and it also, often quite uncon- 
sciously, picks out those who are fitted to acquire and 
apply certain types of knowledge and skill. 



26 THE PRINCIPLES OF EDUCATION 

The function of the school in imparting instruction 
and training is so well known that a lengthy discussion 
of it is unnecessary. While no school is without this 
function, it is especially evident in technical and pro- 
fessional schools. These schools exist for the manifest 
purpose of imparting knowledge and skill that are later 
to be directly applied in vocational activities. 

The selective function of education is less generally 
recognized than that of instruction, but it is scarcely 
less significant. Says Thorndike : — 

All environmental agencies, and especially our edu- 
cational agencies, are a great system of means, not only 
of making men good and intelligent and efficient, but 
also of picking out those who for any reason are good 
and intelligent and efficient. In the latter case they 
may be said to improve not the production, but the dis- 
tribution of mental and moral wealth. They help to put 
the right men in the right places. They help the indi- 
vidual somewhat in so far as they advertise his true 
make-up, and they help society in general tremendously 
by providing it, not with better men, but with the 
knowledge of which men are good. In estimating the 
value of any educational system this selective function 
should never be disregarded. 

To have gone to school at all means not only that 
you have perhaps learned to read and write, but also 
that you were not an invalid, idiot, or runaway. To 
have progressed halfway through the graded schools 
means not only that you have learned somewhat, but 
also that you were not one of the ten or twenty per 
cent who by lack of means or ambition or health or 
mental ability have been eliminated from the school sys- 
tem. To have graduated from a high school means that 
you are one of a very small percentage of the group 
who entered school with you, a percentage picked for 



THE BIOLOGICAL BASES OF EDUCATION 27 

survival not by chance, surely. And so on with the col- 
lege and professional schools. 

It is common to bewail the elimination of so many 
from school life and to rejoice at any numerical increase 
in the proportion of children at any age who are under 
school influences. These opinions are probably justi- 
fiable, but the more important cause for regret or satis- 
faction lies, not in the quantity of those who continue 
school work, but in their quality. Out of a thousand » 
six-year-olds there are a score whose higher education 
is of more value to the community than that of a hun- 
dred of their fellows (74 : 94 f.). 

The school serves the selective function in a variety 
of ways, which may all be classed as direct and indirect, 
or conscious and unconscious, but without any sharp di- 
viding line between the two classes. It serves this f unc- ) 
tion indirectly (1) by causing those students to drop 
from school who cannot meet its demands, and (2) by 1 
unconsciously leading the others in the direction of the 
natural bent of their capacities. The former will go to 
work in some non-technical vocation, not realizing per- 
haps that the school has had a part in their choice, while 
the latter will later find themselves in some more tech- 
nical calling, but quite unconscious of ever having defi- 
nitely chosen it. On the conscious side the selective func- 
tion is discharged (1) when students definitely choose 
studies and vocations on the basis of their tastes and 
abilities as revealed by the school exercises, (2) when 
the teachers guide students in selecting studies, courses, 
and vocations on the basis of powers revealed in the class- 
room, and (3) when faculties fail to graduate students 
on the ground of mental or moral incapacity. To have 
taken the work of a professional school is not necessa- 



28 THE PRINCIPLES OF EDUCATION 

rily a guarantee of later professional success. Society 
has a right, however, to expect the graduates of such 
schools to be reasonably successful because it is more 
or less at their mercy. This throws the responsibility 
of selection, no less than that of instruction, on the 
faculty, who owe it to society to exercise both equally. 
•The failure to recognize the selective function of edu- 
cation has led to no small amount of false theory and 
invalid argument, of which the following, clipped from 
a recent educational journal, is a sample : " A certain 
well-known college president has estimated that a col- 
lege training increases a young man's possibilities of 
reaching the House of Representatives 352 times ; of 
reaching the Senate 530 times ; of reaching the presi- 
dency 139 times ; of reaching the Supreme Court of 
the United States 2027 times ; and after thus piling up 
statistics adds, ' Remember in general that a college edu- 
cation increases a young man's possibilities of reaching 
eminence and wealth and usefulness from 350 to 2000 
fold.' " Now does it ? Suppose there had been no col- 
leges, would not these same men have been the ones to 
become eminent? We are dealing here with two vari- 
ables instead of one. 

12. Period of Infancy. In addition to a brain with 
its vast powers of acquiring and manipulating experi- 
ences, nature has evolved another condition that mate- 
rially assists the educative process. This is the period 
of infancy. This period gives both time and plasticity 
for making the best use of the capacity for education 
just discussed. 

In many of the lower forms of animal life the 
period of infancy is absent altogether. The amoeba 
divides, the hydra buds, and the insect comes forth full 



THE BIOLOGICAL BASES OF EDUCATION 29 

fledged from the pupa. In none of these creatures is 
the new-born member appreciably less helpless than the 
adult, or in any way dependent upon it. Its adjust- 
ments are taken care of by instincts which may be at 
their maximum efficiency from the beginning. But as 
we ascend the animal scale, a change is noticed. The 
young among vertebrates are not produced by division 
or budding, but are hatched from eggs or are brought 
forth alive, and they are dependent in varying degrees 
upon parental care and protection after birth. This 
period of dependence lengthens as we pass upward, and 
helplessness increases correspondingly. The calf and 
the colt can walk soon after birth, although dependent 
on the mother for nourishment and protection, but the 
baby orang-outang is as helpless as an infant for several 
months, and is cared for by its mother with a solicitude 
that is almost human. When we come to man the period 
lengthens still more and in a surprising degree. The 
infant seldom walks before the first year and often not 
until much later, verbal expression is still rudimentary 
at two years, schooling begins at five or six, legal major- 
ity comes at eighteen for the girl and at twenty-one 
for the boy, while many of those who enter careers of 
leadership through the path of the university remain 
under parental or social guidance till twenty-five and 
even longer. Why all this apparently wasteful delay? 

The period of infancy has evolved as a definite bio- 
logical result. It was selected in response to a complex- 
ity of adult activity and environment that could no 
longer be effectively accommodated by increasing com- 
plexity of instinct. It proved easier and more efficient 
to have the young born in an immature state, and to 
have them acquire after birth much that is needed for 



so THE PRINCIPLES OF EDUCATION 

adult life. In man, especially, the activities and envi- 
ronment of adulthood are so intricate that mere in- 
stinct would be too inflexible to meet the varied and 
delicate adjustments called for ; neither could instinct 
alone have given rise to man's type of life which has 
proved so efficient in the struggle for existence. More- 
over, the period of infancy is highly plastic compared 
with that of the adult, which makes the task of acqui- 
sition correspondingly easy. The conditions of educa- 
tion and training are thus provided for by nature. 

13. Transmissibility of Acquired Traits. While the 
period of infancy makes education both possible and 
necessary, there is another biological fact that still 
further increases this necessity. This is the non-trans- 
missioii of-a^cquired traits. It is of course evident that 
kno wled ge as^ucETis not transmitted directly from par- 
jBats-te^pffspring, burtllB*pTobtem^aFconTronts us here 
strikes (feeperThan that. Are any of the modifications 
produced in the nervous system of the parents by edu- 
cation transmitted to offspring? Will John and Mary 
be inherently better scholars because their parents 
spent much of their time over books? Would they 
be inherently poorer scholars if these same parents 
had had no opportunity for study and had spent their 
lives in manual labor ? Questions like these obviously 
cannot be answered off-hand ; neither can they be 
answered by casual observation or an appeal to general 
principles. They need to be carefully investigated by 
expert scientists. This has been done, and while no 
final conclusion has as yet been reached, all the evi- 
dence so far adduced seems to point to the conclusion 
that such traits are not transmitted. 

It seems to be a fact that aU genuine biological pro- 



THE BIOLOGICAL BASES OF EDUCATION 31 

gress occurs through the selection of fortunate congenital 
variations. Offspring not only resemble their parents, 
but they also differ from them, and whenever these dif- 
ferences or variations are of assistance in the struggle 
for existence, they are seized upon by nature and are 
perpetuated. Variations of this kind are not caused by 
anything that the individual has done to himself, or 
that has been done to him, but they are brought about 
by causes inherent in the race and are for that reason 
called " congenital." Acquired traits, whidh_are^hanges 
,sthat the individual has produced in his body or mind by 
his own efforts, or that have been produced in him before 
Birth, are apparently not transmitted to his offspring. 
But even if they are in a measure transmitted, this 
transmission certainly takes place in so small a degree 
that education can neglect it without vitiating its con- 
clusions. 

It is not in place here to go into the pros and cons 
of this matter, but the following summary by Thorn- 
dike may be helpful in understanding it : — 

Whether we are by nature what our parents were by 
nature alone, or what they were by nature plus training, 
may be argued from two points of view. The probability 
of the latter event may be estimated from our knowledge 
of the physical relations between parents and offspring, or 
its actual occurrence may be determined from evidence. 

Some matters are fairly sure : 

1. Whatever changes occur in the nature of the 
chromatic substance in the nuclei of the germs and 
ova of the parents will influence the original nature of 
the offspring, for the nuclei of the germ and ovum are 
the original nature of the offspring. And nothing else 
will. 

2. The germs and ova are made directly from the 



32 THE PRINCIPLES OF EDUCATION 

germ plasm (ovaries and testes) of the parents, and 
not from their bodies in general. Just as the bone 
marrow makes blood, or the cells of the neural tube the 
nervous system, so the germ plasm makes the germs and 
ova. 

3. The cells which are specialized to form the germ 
plasm, that is, to do the work of producing the next 
generation, are set oif and begin their more or less sep- 
arate careers long before the individual is born. 

4. The line of inheritance is thus from germs to germ 
plasm to germs to germ plasm and so on. 

5. The germ plasm is connected with and related to 
other structures in the body, including those of the cen- 
tral nervous system, in no more intimate way than are 
the other structures amongst themselves. The nervous 
system influences the growing germ or ovum as it may 
influence the cells of the liver or heart or skin. 

6. No known mechanism exists by which such altera- 
tions of the nervous structure, or of the quality of the 
nervous tissue as would correspond to changes in human 
mental traits, might produce in the germs changes fitted 
themselves to become in the adult form similar struc- 
tures or qualities to those which caused them. / 

7. The acquisition of specific mental traits by an 
individual seems thus unlikely to modify his germs so 
as to reproduce the trait acquired. With very ^en- \\ 
eral traits, sucb_as^mental vigor or weakness, EealtlTor jl 
degeneracy, the case might welTbe different. Such gen- } 
eral mental traits might be correlated with bodily con- 
ditions which would include the germ plasm as well as 
any other parts of the body. The correlation is, how- 
ever, by no means perfect. As a precise measure of how 
far acquired conditions of general health involve changes 
in the germ plasm, and of how far such changes influ- 
ence mental qualities in the offspring, there are none. 

The obvious way to settle our question is not by con- 
templating these inferences from present knowledge of 



THE BIOLOGICAL BASES OF EDUCATION 35 

processes of development, but rather by making the cru- 
cial experiment of letting animals acquire some mental 
traits, and observing the nature of the offspring. No 
such experiments of a decisive nature have been made 
(74:62f.). 

Even if it is finally proved that acquired traits are 
not at all transmitted, the teacher need not despair. 
Here, as in other instances, the limitation of nature 
proves to be the opportunity for education, for it alone 
can remedy the apparent defect. The non-transmis- 
sion of acquired traits through the germ plasm closes 
only one channel for such transmission. The channel of 
education and training is left as wide open as it ever 
was, and for the transmission of the complex elements 
of man's life this channel is no doubt better than the 
other. It places the external means of progress within 
man's own control, and our science, literature, and art ; 
in short, our present civilization in all its tangible 
aspects is the index of its efficiency. The finest achieve- 
ments of the past, no matter when made or where, are 
still at our disposal. Kn owle dge is the most potent of 
all acquired^aits, and it is man's prerogative to trans- 
maflEEis^ to his offspring. 

14. Eugenics. It may be that the advancement of 
civilization since the dawn of history, and even before, 
has been due entirely to improved environment, using 
this term in a sense broad enough to include all theo- 
retical knowledge, but this is not necessarily the only 
means of improvement open to the race. There is no 
reason to think that the avenue of improvement through 
congenital variation and selection is closed to man. This 
factor may indeed still be operating in mankind, but so 
slowly as to be imperceptible. But man could take hold 



54 THE PRINCIPLES OF EDUCATION 

of it and operate it to his own advantage if he chose 
to do so. He does utilize it with marked success in ' 
the realm of plants and domestic animals. Witness the 
all but miraculous achievements of Luther Burbank. 
He does not create, but, assisting cross-fertilization to 
hasten variation, he selects what nature really pro- 
duces. Our fine breeds of domestic stock of all kinds 
are the result of similar selection. 

Now the laws of hereditary transmission hold with 
man no less than with the rest of life, and scientific men 
have long known it. But to make conscious applications 
of these laws to man is a delicate and all but impossible 
task. It would have to be done in some way through 
marriage, and this is a field in which feeling rules, rather 
than intellect, and in which no one brooks interference. 
The right to marry and rear a family is regarded by 
society as sacred to all save those who are mentally un- 
sound. Physical infirmity and disease are but imperfectly 
excepted, and the same is true of moral worthlessness 
and depravity, although sentiment is changing in these 
respects. This is no doubt weU, but it certainly increases 
the difficulty of the problem. Instruction in the laws of 
heredity, and their bearing on the choice of a partner 
for life, may do something. A little more may perhaps 
be done by legislation and by rewards to encourage mar- 
riage and the rearing of families in certain social strata, 
and to discourage marriage in all those that are socially 
dependent for support. This is done to some extent in 
Germany. But having accomplished this much, otter 
difficulties stare us in the face. One of these is the 
relative infertility of the more individuated stocks. 
College teachers, artists, and other selected classes are 
usually either childless or have but small families. 



THE BIOLOGICAL BASES OF EDUCATION 35 

Weaknesses in directions other than the reproductive 
also crop out when we select too closely. 

In concluding his discussion of this topic, J. Arthur 
Thomson says : — 

Our general position is that among civilized men the 
sentiments of solidarity and sympathy are too precious 
and too strong to admit of mfiuch social surgery, or of 
the more thoroughgoing methods of reproductive elim- 
ination, which moreover assume the possession of more 
science than is really available. On the other hand, there 
seems much to be said for restricting the reproduc- 
tion of undesirables who f aU back on the State for sup- 
port, for some sort of marriage tests, for developing a 
social prejudice against reproduction among the victims 
of markedly bad inheritance, for a fuller and deeper 
recognition of woman's rights both as to mating and 
maternity, for eugenic devices such as Mr. Galton has 
suggested, and so on (73 : 532 f.). 

The term " Eugenics " has been suggested by Francis 
Galton, and refers to the method of race improvement 
through the agency of selection based on congenital 
variation. 

15. Summary: Biologically, man belongs to the ani- 
mal kmgdom and is subject to the laws that pertain to 
that kingdom. Variation and selection, howevera_haig 
differe ntiated him from the other cre ature^ , and have 
made education both possible and necessary. The pos-^ \ 
-sibility of education ^ is furnished by the presence of 
reflective intelligence and the early plasticity of the . 
nervous system. Education is made necessary by the 
perToiTof infantile helplessness and lack of power of 
instinctive adaptation to the situations of adult life, 
and by the non-transmissibility of acquired traits. But 



36 THE PRINCIPLES OF EDUCA'] 



'd^ 



while social progress is now almost, if not quite, con- 
ditioned by improved environment, which is conserved 
and added to, progress through congenital variation and 
selection might apparently also be utilized by man as 
he himself uses it with plants and the lower animals. 
E ducation js. limited by thq ynriahlA gf.rpngf,}] nf naj^ivA 
capac ity, which also introduces the selective agency of 
educationT*""-^ — ' " ~~ '■ " 



EXERCISES 

1. Do any of the lower animals educate or train their 
young ? 

2. What bearing would the transmission of acquired traits 
have upon education? 

3. What are the neurological changes produced in the 
brain by education ? 

4. What evidence is there that man has descended from 
lower animal forms ? 

5. What evidence is there that mental traits, like physical 
traits, are inherited? ( 73 : 525) ; (74 : 52 f.). 

6. Distinguish between the fact and the method of evolu- 
tion. Which is at present most discussed and investigated? 

7. Do evolutionists believe that man has descended from 
the ape? What is a "common ancestor"? A "connecting 
link" ? 

8. Distinguish between a congenital and an acquired 
trait. If acquired traits are not transmitted, how does evolu- 
tion proceed ? 

9. What is the doctrine of evolution, and on what evidence 
does it rest ? What has Hugo de Vries added to Darwin's 
theory of natural selection ? 

10. Would it be consistent to believe that, while evolution 
applies to the plants and to the lower animals, it does not 
apply to man ? Give reason for your answer. 

11. May there be an inherent tendency in human germs 
(and in other germs as well) to vary in a definite direction, 



THE BIOLOGICAL BASES OF EDUCATION 37 

so that racial improvement would take place without the 
element of natural selection ? Compare and contrast this idea 
with the growth of an acorn into a tree. 

12. Is the following argument valid ? " The congenitally 
blind from eye defects do not have visual images of the sun, 
stars, or any other of the permanent objects of the natural 
world, yet their ancestors for at least hundreds of generations, 
save in the cases of those lacking in visual images, had such 
images, again and again. If the hourly experiences of hun- 
dreds of ancestral generations do not become a part of inborn 
equipment, we could hardly expect anything to do so " (74 ; 
65). 

COLLATERAL READING 

Bagley, Educative Process, 1-22. 
Butler, Meaning of Education, 3-17. 
Dewar and Finn, The Making of Species. 
■H FiSKE, Meaning of Infancy. 
HoRNE, Philosophy of Education, 18-56. 
Thorndike, Educational Psychology, 62-65, 94-96. 



CHAPTER III 

THE AIM OF EDUCATION 

1 6. The Aim Stated. The aim of education has 
been implied throughout the preceding chapter. It may 
be defined from the biological standpoint as the ad- 
justment of the individual to the life in which he must 
participate. The word " environment " might be sub- 
stituted for the word " life," but not without making 
the two words synonymous, which seems unwarranted. 
In ordinary usage, " environment " is taken to have 
objective reference only, but this is inadequate for 
education, which deals with subjective matters as well. 
The word " life," as ordinarily used, includes these, but 
without at the same time excluding the objective aspects 
with which education also deals. Education adjusts to 
environment, but it does more than that ; it adjusts 
to life both in its objective and subjective aspects. 

In the process of adjustment education is not the 
only factor, for much is taken care of by instinct^ bwt 
it is nevertheless an indispensable factor. By means of 
it man is especially adjusted to those elements of life 
that are characteristically human, — those elements that 
man alone possesses in any conspicuous degree. These 
are, briefly, the humanities, the natural sciences, and 
philosophy, on the one hand, and a cultivated and dis- 
ciplined mind and refined conduct, on the other. The 
first of these, which imply instruction, may be described 
as objective or contentful, and the second, which imply 



THE AIM OF EDUCATION 39 

training, as subjective or formal. These two classes of 
elements are obviously correlative, one implying tbe 
other ; but they should both be explicitly stated in any 
complete definition of education, a fact that will become 
more and more evident as we proceed. Including them 
both, we may now say that t o educate a person means , 
/ to adjus t hvm to those elements of his environment 
that are of concern in modern life^ and to develop^'' 
organize^ and train his powers so that he rndymaTce 
efficient and proper use of them. The first part of this 
definition refers to the objective, and the second to 
the subjective, side of life. The two are intentionally 
given in the order mentioned. Broadly considered, the - 
objective or content side of life is primary, and the sub- 
jective or formal side is secondary. Powers cannot be 
developed and trained except in reference to definite 
objective or contentful requirements. It is necessary 
to specify modern life because it must always be dis- 
tinctly realized that the function of education is not to 
adapt to the past, but to adapt the achievements of the 
past to the present ; and the word " proper " is neces- 
sary to insure the inclusion of the ethical aspect of life. 
This definition in ultimate essence means nothing more 
than to say that education is the means of equipping the 
individual to live a typical human life, and that in final 
analysis this life contains both objective and subjective 
aspects. A more detailed account of what a typical 
human life should contain belongs to the domain of the 
moralist rather than to that of the educator. Paulsen, 
in giving such an account, speaks as follows : — 

We may say in a most general way that the good at 
which the will of every living creature aims is the normal 
exercise of the vital functions which constitute its no- 



40 THE PRINCIPLES OF EDUCATION 

ture. Every animal desires to live the life for which it 
is predisposed. Its natural disposition manifests itself 
in impulses, and determines its activity. The formula 
may also be applied to man. He desires to live a human 
life and all that is implied in it; that is, a mental^ 
historical life^ in which there is room for the exercise 
of all human mental powers and virtues. He desires to 
play and to learn, to work and to acquire wealth, to pos- 
sess and to enjoy, to form and to create ; he desires to love 
and to admire, to obey and to rule, to fight and to win, 
to make poetry and to dream, to think and to investi- 
gate. And he desires to do aU these things in their natural 
order of development, as life provides them. He desires 
to experience the relations of the child to his parents, of 
the pupil to his teacher, of the apprentice to the master ; 
and his wiU, for the time being, finds the highest satis- 
faction in such a life. He desires to live as a brother 
among brothers, as a friend among friends, as a com- 
panion among companions, as a citizen among citizens, 
and also to prove himself an enemy against enemies. 
Finally, he desires to experience what the lover, husband, 
and father experience, — he desires to rear and educate 
children who shall preserve and transmit the contents of 
his own life. And after he has lived such a life and has 
acquitted himself like an honest man, he has realized his 
desires ; his life is complete ; contentedly he awaits the 
end, and his last wish is to be gathered peacefully to his 
fathers (60: 270). 

/^ The conception of education as adjustment is con- 
Y-spicuously biological in its essence. It is a result of the 
spreading leaven of the doctrine of evolution, and is only 
now in the process of becoming dominant. It is the logi- 
cal sequent of the conception that the earth has been 
man's natural home for eons of time, and that man has 
come to his present estate by an adaptive and upward 



THE AIM OF EDUCATION 41 

struggle with his surroundings; a struggle that has, 
indeed, often been hard and trying, but that has never 
lacked in interest and the zest of hfe. Understanding 
this relation, man no longer tries to abjure the world, to 
seek seclusion from it, or to gain liberation from a life 
of bondage ; but he seeks to understand and master the 
world, and to make it an ever increasingly pleasant place 
in which to live. 

17. Adjustment the Keynote* of Life. Adjustment, 
or adaptation, is the keynote of life throughout the plant 
and animal kingdoms. One sees it so constantly mani- 
fested on every hand that the enumeration of instances 
seems superfluous. Protective coloration forms an excel- 
lent example. The polar bear is white like the ice and 
snow in which he lives, the jack rabbit of the temperate 
zone is gray in summer and white in winter, and the 
zebra is striped to resemble the appearance of the tall 
grass of his habitat. Many a person has taken the bug 
called " Walking-stick " for a twig, only to be horrified 
at having it move in his hand. The camel has broad 
hoofs to enable him to walk over loose sand, he has 
a water pouch to protect him against thirst in desert 
regions; and so on through the list. 

What is true of the body as a whole is true also of all 
its parts. With the exception of certain vestigial organs, 
every organ is fashioned to perform a function that is 
ultimately demanded by the conditions of life. The ner- 
vous system is no exception to this rule, but forms one 
of the most excellent illustrations. It allows a rapidity 
and delicacy of adjustment that would be quite impos- 
sible without it. We come here, indeed, to the adaptive 
agency of mind, for mental action is the supreme func- 
tion of the nervous system. Every instinct active in the 



42 THE PRINCIPLES OF EDUCATION 

animal world has survived because it has enabled its 
possessor better to survive and to fit into his niche in life. 
The fact that an instinct like curiosity will occasionally 
lead an animal to its death is no real exception to the 
rule. On the whole, curiosity assists in survival even 
among the lower animals, and its possibilities are indi- 
cated by the splendor of the mind of man. 

i8. Human and Animal Life Contrasted. In the 
lower animals life is practically synonymous with adap- 
tation to environment.! These animals are guided in the 
main by instinct, and in consequence they have but 
little mental life of which they are distinctly aware.) The 
environment, moreover, to which they are adapted by 
their various organs and instincts is much as nature 
has directly provided it. It is, of course, complicated 
by the presence of other animals, which both prey and 
are preyed upon, but these also are the direct product 
of evolution. The fox, indeed, digs his burrow, and the 
beaver builds his lodge, to that extent making their 
own environments ; but these acts are done instinctively, 
with little or no intelligent guidance, and they do not 
greatly complicate the environment as directly provided. 

But when we come to man, the case changes greatly. 
He lives largely in the realm of mind, and his environ- 
ment is no longer natural, but artificial; it is "man- 
made." The points untouched by his modifying hand 
are the exception instead of the rule. Man no longer 
adapts himself to nature as he finds it, but adapts na- 
ture to his own needs. The forces of progressive adjust- 
ment have been transferred from without to within. 

19. Characteristics of Man's Life: (a) Re-created 
Environment. This fact is again so universally mani- 
fest that illustrations seem superfluous. Our funda- 



THE AIM OF EDUCATION 43 

mental needs — protection, food, clothing, shelter, lo- 
comotion, and communication — all equally illustrate 
it. Man no longer lives in caves formed by the ele- 
ments, but provides himself with comfortable dwellings 
that are warmed or cooled in, various ingenious ways. 
The rigors of climate are overcome by both fire and 
clothing. The materials of clothing are so transformed 
that their source is seldom directly manifest. Some 
articles of food are eaten in their natural state, but 
most of them are so changed in their preparation for 
the table that they are quite unrecognizable. Neither is 
nature left to produce foods and fibers in its own man- 
ner and places, but animals are raised, the soil is culti- 
vated, and deserts are made to blossom by irrigation. 
A Burbank comes along and outdoes nature in the 
production of new varieties of fruits and vegetables. 
Physically weak, and with neither horns, claws, nor 
fangs, man, with the aid of the rifle, has the advantage 
in an encounter with the strongest and fiercest of the 
beasts. Language is a product of evolution, but the 
efficiency of the natural power of communication is 
multiplied many fold by the telephone, telegraph, and 
wireless. Restricted by nature to a comparatively slow 
rate of locomotion, man first hollowed trunks of trees 
and harnessed animals to assist him. Later he utilized 
the forces of nature, until now he is one of the most 
mobile of the animals. Even the air seems finally to 
have been conquered as a medium of travel. 

19. (b) Mental and Spiritual Life. But this is not 
all. It is only the foundation for human life as it really 
is. We were taught in our childhood that man does not 
live to eat, but eats to live, and this is essentially true. 
Food, clothing, shelter, locomotion, and the rest, are 



44 THE PRINCIPLES OF EDUCATION 

not the ends of life, but only the means, in large part 
at least. To the extent that their prosecution is pleasant 
and interesting, they are life, and it may even be main- 
tained that their prosecution is, or should be, pleasant 
and interesting throughout, but there are yet activities 
beyond for which we all ultimately strive. These are the 
intellectual, the aesthetic, the social, and the religious. 
Not that these are entirely divorced from our vocational 
activities, for all our activities are more or less interre- 
lated, but they nevertheless form elements of superior 
excellence for which we aim quite independently. While 
we can no longer go the full distance that Aristotle went, 
and say that all work is for the sake of leisure, we cannot 
fail to maintain that lifg^ without leisure nobly spent is 
less than hiunan. The intellectuaT and emotional activi- 
ties are the most cherished and characteristic activities 
of human life. Not mere shelter, but a beautiful home ; 
not mere clothing, but aesthetic attire ; not mere pro- 
duction, but joyful work, are our aims. The scientist, 
the artist, the true business man, and the true profes- 
sional man work for the activity quite as much as for 
the product. Science is appreciated for the insight it 
gives no less than for its usefulness, and the column is 
desired more for its beauty than for the support it 
yields. Literature, art, and travel are, indeed, recrea- 
tive, and so make for more efficient future action, but 
we want them mainly for the life they yield directly. 
Religion is a solace in this world as well as a hope for 
the next. Parties, receptions, and social intercourse in 
general, are among the most delightful experiences we 
have, and are much more than mere incidents in life. 
The heart of man's life is not the vegetative and the 
physical, but the realm of the intellect and the feel- 



THE AIM OF EDUCATION 45 

ings, and to this only education can adequately adjust 
him. 

19. (c) Moral Life. Another element of man's life 
that is primarily a means, but that is in a measure also 
an end, is the moral or ethical. This holds such a con- 
spicuous place in human life that no educational theory 
aspiring to completeness in the essentials can afford to 
leave it out of account. It is the condition that makes 
possible the pursuit of one's calling and the undisturbed 
enjoyment of one's leisure. One may, indeed, call it 
the corner-stone on which society and civilization rest. 
Without it, social life as we know it could not exist. 
Were it removed for but a day, we should revert to a 
condition worse than savagery, and even now much of 
the evil and suffering in the world is the direct result 
of its neglect. 

On the objective side the moral life is a result of 
the inherent social nature of man which impels him to 
live i n groups, while on the subjective side it is made 
possible by man's developed intellect and by the feeling 
impulses of sympathy and of fairness. The gregarious 
life of man has been the condition for the development 
of the moral life, but without the spontaneous appear- 
ance of the impulses mentioned, and of insight, this life 
could not have been selected. These subjective qualities 
were chosen because they proved to be valuable to the 
organism ; because life on a social basis, which they made 
possible, is more effective than life on an individual 
basis. 

Granted the power of intellectual insight, the char- 
acteristic tone of the moral consciousness is produced 
by the feelings of sympathy and of fairness. Other feel- 
ings may also be present, but they cannot be called char- 



46 THE PRINCIPLES OF EDUCATION 

acteristically moral. Fairness is the root that gives us 
integrity, loyalty to principle, and the sense of right and 
justice, while sympathy is the mainspring of kindness, 
generosity, altruism, and self-sacrifice. One prompts to 
righteousness and the other to neighborliness. Both are 
essential, and it is idle to place one above the other. 
Mercy without justice is debilitating, and justice with- 
out mercy is cruelty. Education must awaken and train 
them both, and it must enlighten the intellect on moral 
topics certainly no less than on others. 

19. (d) Man's Life Progressive. Education cannot 
rest content with adjusting the rising generation to the 
life as it is found at the moment. Man's life and envi- 
ronment are not static, but dynamic and progi*essive, 
and education must take this into account. The world is 
ever moving on, and as time proceeds, it appears to be 
moving ever more rapidly. One generation now prob- 
ably witnesses more advancement than did five gen- 
erations a few centuries ago. This has a telling effect 
on mankind. On the whole, it improves the conditions 
of life and happiness, but not infrequently men, by 
individuals and by groups, are thrown out of adjust- 
ment and are left s tranded like s o much superannuated 
machinery. Their callings or their methods of pursuing 
tteenl>a£(g superseded by more recent inventions or by 
more economical combinations of industry. Still others, 
who may retain their callings, but who do not keep 
abreast of progress, are left hopelessly in the rear. If 
they are business or professional men, their business slips 
away from them, and goes to those who are younger or 
more progressive. As a result, they lose both their sup- 
port and peace of mind. They speak of '' the good old 
times," and are sure that the world is growing worse 



THE AIM OF EDUCATION 47 

and is going pellmell to perdition. Their millennium, 
instead of being in the future, is in the past. 

20. Causes of Arrested Adjustment. The causes of 
the inability of the individual to continue growing with 
his environment are various and complex. At least three 
may be mentioned. These are the lack of knowledge, | 
the principle of habit, and the declining plasticity of] 
the nerve tissue as maturity advances. Their impor- • 
tance probably ranks in the order in which they have 
been given. The tendency for the plasticity of nerve 
tissue to decline varies in different people, and so far as 
we know, it cannot be checked except by death, one of 
whose functions appears to be to remove the old and 
static in order to make room for the young and plastic. 
But its dampening influence on progressive adjustment 
may no doubt be much mitigated by the proper sort 
of knowledge. Habit pervades all of man's activities, 
throwing them into a fixed and static form, and unless 
influence is brought to bear from " above" in some way, 
progress is comparatively stopped. The influence that 
may be brought to bear is again knowledge, knowledge 
rightly acquired and of the right sort, and this is obvi- 
ously also the remedy in regard to ignorance. It is here 
that the educative process must bring to bear its lever- 
age, which it can do in at least three ways. 

21. Remedies : (a) Realization of Prog ress. In the 
first place, the student must be led to realize that this 
is a progressive world, and that he will be left behind 
unless he makes continual efforts to keep abreast. ^^The « 
chief trouble with those who are left stranded usually 
is that they look to others, and not to themselves, for' 
the cause. They feel sure that they learned the thing 
in their youth, and that the world is unkind and fickle 



48 THE PRINCIPLES OF EDUCATION 

for not staying by them. Their theoretical training is, 
no doubt, also at fault, but if they were keenly conscious 
of the fact that nothing is final and everything is in 
a state of flux, they could probably remedy this. It is 
the judgment factor, and that only, that enables one to 
escape from the bondage of habit. Habit is good in its 
place; it saves much time and energy, but in certain 
realms we must ever keep a watchful eye upon it and 
be ready to modify our reactions as occasions require. 
The structure of the educated mind should be like that 
of some modern buildings, never finished, but at all 
times ready to be extended in any and all directions. 
This is the aim or ideal factor in adjustment to progress. 
21. (b) Apperceptive Basis. In the second place, 
psychological experiment is demonstrating that a per- 
son's plasticity in any line of activity varies with the 
amount of theoretical knowledge he has upon which to 
• base that activity. Judd records a suggestive experiment 
touching this point. He says : — ' 

Two groups of pupils in the fifth and sixth grades 
were required to hit with a small dart a target which 
was placed under water. The difficulty of hitting the 
target arises, of course, from the deflection which the 
light suffers through refraction. The target is not where 
it seems to be, and the boy must fit his aim with the 
dart to conditions which differ from those which he 
knows in ordinary life. The amount of refraction and 
the consequent displacement of the target are capable 
of definite theoretical explanation before one throws the 
dart. In this experiment one group of boys was given 
a full theoretical explanation of refraction. The other 
group of boys was left to work out experience without 
theoretical training. These two groups began practice 
with the target under twelve inches of water. It is a 



THE AIM OF EDUCATION 49 

very striking fact that in the first series of trials the 
boys who knew the theory of refraction, and those who 
did not, gave about the same results. That is, theory 
seemed to be of no value in the first tests. All the boys 
had to learn how to use the dart, and theory proved to 
be no substitute for practice. At this point the conditions 
were changed. The twelve inches of water were reduced 
to four. The difference between the two groups of boys 
now came out very strikingly. The boys without theory 
were very much confused. The practice gained with 
twelve inches of water did not help them with four 
inches. Their errors were large and persistent. On the 
other hand, the boys who had the theory fitted them- 
selves to four inches very rapidly. Their theory evidently 
helped them to see the reason why they must not apply 
the twelve-inch habit to four inches of water. Note that 
theory was not of value until it was backed by practice, 
but when practice and theory were both present, the 
best adjustment was rapidly worked out (24: 36 f.). 

The person who understands the theory underlying 
a line of activity can see the reasons for modifications 
and advances, and, having a basis for their assimila- 
tion, can adjust himself accordingly. We are here face 
to face with the principle of apperception as applied to 
progressive adjustment. Medicine is at this time mak- 
ing rapid advances along the lines of bacteriology and 
pathology, and the physician who is well grounded in 
these sciences can readily assimilate the advances that 
are made, while the one who is not so grounded stands 
helpless and perplexed. For him the old blind routine 
must suffice, and his declining practice is the conse- 
quence. The teacher who is not well grounded in theory 
is equally helpless. He must have intelligent plasticity 
both in his academic and in his professional equipment. 



50 THE PRINCIPLES OF EDUCATION 

Unless lie knows the fundamental bases of aims and of 
methods, he is at the mercy of every fad that comes, 
and he cannot unaided sift the chaff from the wheat. 
The content of what he teaches is also ever changing, 
especially in the sciences, which calls for continuous 
diligence in progressive study. 

The bearing of this on education is obvious and far- 
reaching. It speaks for sound theoretical training ; not 
necessarily apart from practical training, but theoreti- 
cal training, nevertheless. The mere doing of a thing is 
not sufficient ; in order to be placed under progressive 
control, it must be systematically understood. We have 
here the apperceptive basis for progressive adjustment. 

21. (c) Dynamic Method. The third factor that 
brings about plasticity concerns the element of method 
in acquisition. The progressive nature of the environ- 
ment requires the elimination of dogmatism from teach- 
ing on nearly 'all sides. Facts and principles should be 
taught as more or less tentative, as Representing the 
state of knowledge now existent. The student should 
frequently be given glimpses into the historical devel- 
opment of knowledge, which will help him to appreciate 
that, just as changes have occurred in the past, so they 
are likely to occur in the future. Further, adaptation 
to environment is throughout an active process and not 
a receptive one. A person cannot become adapted by 
passively receiving something, but only through active 
participation. This implies that the pupil's part in the 
process of learning should be dynamic. He should be 
led to find out things for himself, to question critically, 
in short, to use his own judgment and initiative, to the 
end that he may establish within himseK progressive 
methods of work. 



THE AIM OF EDUCATION 51 

This implies further that the method of education 
should be largely direct. A stud^t sEouId come into 
active~reIation with things and situations themselves, 
but this should be accompanied by the study of facts 
and theory as recorded in books. Active management 
and control are usually accomplished most efficiently 
when approached from the thought side. Theory and 
practice go hand in hand, and really cannot be sepa- 
rated, not even in the actual process of adaptation. This 
makes the study of books in the schoolroom necessary, 
now as always, but concrete activities are no less neces- 
sary. The mischief arises when tbe two are divorced. 
In the past the study of books has usually held too 
large a place, but the pendulum is now swinging in the 
other direction. In most subjects, however, it is not 
likely to swing too far. Because of the ease of managing 
books in school and the difficulty of managing things, 
it is more likely not to swing far enough. 

It is, of course, not meant that every one should 
become an original investigator and discoverer. Those 
activities belong to the few who are by nature ifitted for 
them. Still, this class would no doubt also be benefited 
by the principles here indicated, for more would be led 
into it through self-discovery. What is meant prima- 
rily is that the rank and file of people should be assisted 
to a position where they may appropriate what the 
leaders in all lines originate, and where they may give 
their moral support and, if possible, their coopera- 
tion. There is little danger that progress will ever go 
on too fast, and a part of the maladjustment that it now 
entails could no doubt be mitigated through proper edu- 
cation. 

22. Progress and the Curriculum. The progressive 




52 THE PRINCIPLES OF EDUCATION 

nature of man's life has a vital bearing also on the 
content of the curriculum. The curriculum repr« 
' man's present life in epitome, and as this life 
' th e curriculum should e hcS fec . This it should do as 
regards both inclusion and exclusion. Knowledge no 
longer used in life should no longer be retained in 
school, except as history, while new knowledge that is 
used should be taken up and included. As is so fre- 
quently the case, this is simple in theory, but proves to 
be difficult in practice. There is always a fight when top- 
ics so far taught are to be excluded, and there is no less 
opposition when new ones are to be included. Because 
. of this the statement is sometimes made, and with some 
•justice, that the school is always a generation behind 
civilization. As a cause of this opposition is cited the 
conservatism of human nature, but deeper the analysis 
* seldom goes. There are no doubt several causes, such as 
♦ the lack of teachers for the new, lack of proper school 

- facilities, reverence for the training we have ourselves 
^ received, and the extreme demands of the faddists, but 

as one cause we have here, no doubt, just the phenome- 
non we have been discussing. Beyond question, much of 
the conservatism we meet is a direct result of the fact 
that education is not taking a sufficient account of the 
progressive element in man's life. Those who produce 
the opposition are neither fully aware that this is a 

- moving world, the school included, nor do they under- 
stand the principles underlying the curriculum. They 
have neither the ideal nor the theoretical bases that 
enable progress. 

23. Meaning of Adjustment. Adjustment in edu- 
cation means fundamentally three things. It means 
V intelligent mastery over one's environment, increased 



THE AIM OF EDUCATION 53 

harmony with it, and added appreciation of it. Tlie * 
adjusted or educated person feels at home in the world, . 
he has at least a part of it under his intelligent control, 
and he has opened up to him new avenues of intellectual ' 
and emotional enjoyment. The plants and flowers are 
his acquaintances, with whom he does not work at cross 
purposes. His knowledge of them gives added richness 
to his life in the fields and the woods, and if he chooses 
to apply this knowledge to horticulture or agriculture, 
it will yield him financial returns. Bacteriology, physi- 
ology, and hygiene not only enable him to live in har- 
mony with the rules of health, but they give the physi- 
cian control over the results of transgressions. The 
person who knows the stars and the planets, who under- 
stands their movements, and who is acquainted with the 
constellations and the myths connected with them, has 
a source of delight that it would be hard to overvalue, 
and the appearances of comets and eclipses are to him 
phenomena that are to be awaited with interest, and 
not to be feared with a sinister apprehension. The tele- 
phone, the telegraph, the telescope, the Crookes tube, 
and the steam engine are mysteries to the child and 
to the untutored, but to the student of physics their 
secrets are revealed. He appreciates their mechanism, 
knows what he may touch and what leave alone, and 
the specialist lets them do man's work. What is true 
of the sciences is correspondingly true of history, lan- 
guage, literature, and the rest of man's social-historical 
environment. The educated man is one whose life is ' 
characterized by increasing richness, safety, and control. 
He has been stimulated on all sides, in feeling no less 
than in intellect, and his skill in application has been 
developed by practice. 



54 THE PRINCIPLES OF EDUCATION 

24. Summary. This, in brief outline, is the life to 
which man must become adjusted. It is characteristi- 
cally progress ive, and is in .a measure solely mental. 
Where it does touch the p hysical, adju stment "is still 
accomplished through the mental^ i. e., through know- 
ledge. The callings of medicine, law, teaching, preach- 
ing, farming, and engineering, no less than science, 
literature, history, art, and religion, are entered and 
controlled largely through the avenue of mind. A type 
of adjustment is here demanded for which nature has 
given the equipment only in capacity. Man himself 
must fill in the content, which he does through the 
school and other agencies. 
<^r^/^ ?^£_^!?^ ^^ e ducation m ay be defined as the ^just- 
/^ ment of the individual to the life in which he must par- 
ticipate, this life being considered both in its objective 
^'-^^t^^^nd subjective aspects. The environment of man is 
-^ largely artificial, the product of his own achievements, 
thus differing widely from that of the lower animals, 
which is much as nature has directly provided it. Man 
is no longer directly dependent on nature for protection, 
food, clothing, shelter, locomotion, and communication, 
but he provides these items by controlling the forces 
of nature through knowledge. The most characte ristic 
features of man's life, however, are'the^ intellectual, the 
aestheti c, the social, the moral, and the religious^ All 
tnese features demand a corresponding type of educative 
process. This process is complicated by the fact that 
^ man's life is not static, but dynamic and progressive. 
This dynamic and progressive aspect is produced by the 
leaders of mankind themselves, and all others must be- 
come adjusted to it. This may be done through proper 
methods of teaching, through the comprehension oC 



THE AIM OF EDUCATION 55 

fundamental p rinciples, and through the awareness of 
the fact that the world is changing and P£9^1£ssive, 
and that we are likely to fall behind unless we make 
definite efforts to keep abreast. The progressive nature 
of life also has a vital bearing on the content of the 
curriculum. 

EXERCISES 

1. Does one ever have thoughts and feelings that have no 
reference to adjustment ? 

2. Point out some conflicts in the school curriculum that 
are owing to changed environment. 

3. Show that one's view of the nature and function of 
mind will affect one's view of education. 

4. Show that adjustment has been the unconscious, if not 
the conscious, aim of education throughout history. 

5. According to ethics, what is the summum bonum, or 
Highest Good ? What relation has this to the aim of educa- 
tion ? 

6. Discuss the following definition : " Environment in- 
cludes the inherited and acquired characteristics of one's own 
mind and body, as well as the physical surroundings of outer 
life." 

7. Mention instances from various lines of activity in 
which individuals or classes were injured because of progress. 
Could any of these have been mitigated by previous school 
education ? 

8. In defining the aim of education as adjustment, is 
it necessary to specify the subjective aspect, as was done in 
the text, or would this be implied by the word "adjust- 
ment"? 

9. Show that the exercise of the moral life is an end as 
well as a means. What is meant by saying that virtue is its 
own reward, and that the reward of doing good is having 
done it? 



56 THE PRINCIPLES OF EDUCATION 



COLLATERAL READING 

Boone, Science of Education, 271-396. 

JuDD, Genetic Psychology for Teachers, 129-160. 

MtJNSTERBERG, Psychology and the Teacher, 47-77. 

O'Shea, Education as Adjustment, 76-117. 

Swift, Mind in the Making, 307-329. 

Vincent, Social Mind and Education, 91-113. 



CHAPTER IV 

OTHER STATEMENTS OF THE AIM OF EDUCATION 

(A) Content Aims 

25. Prevalence of Adjustment Aim. The statement 
of the aim of education as " adjustment " has been used 
occasionally in educational literature for some time. 
Nicholas Murray Butler, speaking in 1896, said : " If 
education cannot be identified with mere instruction, 
what is it ? What does the term mean ? I answer, it must 
mean a gradual adjustment to the spiritual possessions 
of the race" (11 : 17). Home, writing in 1903, defined 
education as " the eternal process of superior adjustment 
of the physically and mentally developed, free, conscious, 
human being to God, as manifested in the intellectual, 
emotional, and volitional environment of man" (36 : 285). 
Judd, in his " Genetic Psychology for Teachers," takes 
precisely the same view as is taken in this text. (See, for 
example, chapter v.) He continually uses such expres- 
sions as " adaptation to environment " and " the doctrine," 
or " the principle, of adaptation." But it has remained 
for O'Shea to work out in detail the conception of ad- 
justment, as applied to education, and make it current. 
He did this for the public in general in his " Education 
as Adjustment," published in 1903, but he gave the 
material in lecture form to his classes for several years 
before that time. 

While the definition of education as adjustment to 



58 THE PRINCIPLES OF EDUCATION 

life is very general, as a brief definitioD of so large a sub- 
ject as education necessarily must be, it nevertheless in- 
cludes just the essential points. It is broad enough to 
embrace all stages and varieties of education, and views 
the subject from the scientific standpoint, which is one 
of the strongest things in its favor. This standpoint is 
impartial and disinterested, favoring nothing except care- 
ful scientific inference. It removes education from the 
realm of philosophical and theological opinion and other 
partial views, and places it on the same dignified footing 
as medicine and engineering and all other callings based 
on the sciences. What is true in the partial statements is 
naturally included in this one, for it embraces education 
in all its phases. 

But while this conception of the aim of education is 
now probably more prevalent than any other, and bids 
fair to become a commonplace, there are other concep- 
tions that are still living, or that have died so recently 
that in deference to them we must digress slightly from 
our main ' line of exposition at this point and consider 
them. This will not only give us a knowledge of them, 
which it is necessary for the broad student of educational 
theory to possess, but it will also throw additional light 
on our own point of view, and so will help us to see what 
the essential qualities of an acceptable aim are. In pre- 
senting these aims it will be expedient to quote frequently 
from the writings of their sponsors. 

26. The Social Aim. The aim deserving to be con- 
sidered first in this connection is, perhaps, that of " social 
efficiency," more frequently called merely the " social 
aim." This formulation has been given wide currency by 
the writings of Dewey and of Bagley. Dewey nowhere 
gives an explicit exposition of the aim, but tlif '<<:Kiial 



CONTENT AIMS 59 

aim is the one overtly adopted in all his educational 
writings (of. 16, 18). He begins his " Creed " with this 
sentence : " I believe that all education proceeds by the 
participation of the individual in the social conscious- 
ness of the race." The *' ultimate and unified standard " 
for the value of studies, he takes to be " the extent and 
way in which a study brings a pupil to consciousness of 
his social environment, and confers upon him the ability 
to interpret his own powers from the standpoint of their 
possibility in social use " (16 : 18). It is worth noting 
that this wording explicitly includes both the objective 
and subjective aspects brought out in the preceding 
chapter. 

The term " social efficiency " is the one preferred by 
Bagley, who develops it as follows : — 

Social efficiency ... is the standard by which the 
forces of education must select the experiences that are 
to be impressed upon the individual. Every subject of 
instruction, every item of knowledge, every form of 
reaction, every detail of habit must be measured by 
this yardstick. Not, what pleasure wiU this bring to the 
individual ? not, in what manner will this contribute to 
his harmonious development? not, what effect will this 
Lave upon his bread- winning capacity ? but always, will 
this subject, or this knowledge, or this reaction, or this 
habit so function in his after-life that society will max- 
imally profit ? 

It now remains to state as clearly and explicitly as 
possible just what social efficiency means. 

(1) That person only is socially efficient who is not 
a drag upon society ; who, in other words, can "pull his 
own weight " either directly as a productive agent or 
indirectly by guiding, inspiring, or educating others to 
productive effort. 



60 THE PRINCIPLES OF EDUCATION 

(2) That man only is socially efficient who, in addi- 
tion to " pulling his weight," interferes as little as pos- 
sible with the efforts of others. 

This requires of a socially efficient individual that he 
be moral in at least a negative fashion ; that he respect 
the rights of others, sacrificing his own pleasure when 
this interferes with the productive efforts of others. 

(3) That man is socially most efficient who not only 
fulfills these two requirements, but also lends his energy 
consciously and persistently to that further differentia- 
tion and integration of social forces which is everywhere 
synonymous with progress (4 : 60 f.). 

(Now it is no doubt evident to the impartial student 
that by the " social " or " social efficiency " aim, Dewey 
and Bagley mean essentially the same thing as others 
do by the aim of adjustment. The difference is one 
more of words than of substance. A curriculum selected 
by Bagley with his " yardstick " might be quite iden- 
tical with one selected by O'Shea with his. Still, this 
does not imply that these formulations are of equal 
merit. Certain desirable subjects, such as art and music, 
that the adjustment aim would include directly, the social 
aim would include only indirectly. Strictly interpreted, 
the social aim is but a partial statement of the aim of 
education, the truth of which is included in " adjust- 
ment to life." " Life " is a broader term than " social" 
and includes it, just as human life is broader than social 
life, including the latter. Man comes in contact with 
the inanimate, the plant, and the animal worlds as well 
as with the social, and these contacts are not always for 
the sake of the social. They may be primarily for the 
individual's own gratification. In actual life the indi- 
vidual is not subordinated to society to the extent that 
is implied by Bagley. Man indulges his taste in music, 



CONTENT AIMS 61 

art, literature, philosophy, and even science, largely for 
his own immediate enjoyment, without any thought of 
social benefit, and it is conceivable that such benefit 
might not ensue. 

A broad view of the history of civilization indicates 
an unmistakable development toward the appreciation 
of the unique worth of the individual. In primitive soci- 
ety the unit is always the group, the individual receiv- 
ing scarcely any separate recognition, but as civilization 
advances and life grows more secure, the individual be- 
comes more and more prominent. Social life continues, 
of course, and is cherished more rather than less, but the 
conception of the individual's place in society becomes 
vastly more liberal. It is seen that from the human 
point of view society exists for the individual, and not 
the individual for society, for it is the individual that 
really lives and experiences, and not the group. Social 
organization is but a means for the full realization 
of individual lives. This means is even instinctively 
demanded, so that man really cannot get away from it. 
It is as natural for man to live and cooperate with his 
fellows as it is for him to eat and to drink, to enjoy and 
to create, and quite as necessary. The social form oi* 
life has been selected for man because of its efficiency, 
and now represents one of his most fundamental needs ; 
but man has other needs as well which are no less fun- 
damental. Man's life, and consequently education, are| 
not bounded by the social, and the social criterion is not 
the only one for admitting subjects to the curriculum. 
It is but one among several, albeit a very important 
one. * Its importance is commensurate with the position 
that the social element holds in man's life, but an ade- 

^ Cf . chapters yii and viii. 



62 THE PRINCIPLES OF EDUCATION 

.^uate conception of the function of education must be 
BfoaS enough to include other elements as well. 

27. The Moral Aim. The social aim is the develop- 
ment of the moral aim of education^ which has been 
dominant since the time of Herbart (1776-1841). 
This aim is thus defined by Herbart : — 

The term virtue expresses the whole purpose of edu- 
cation. Virtue is the idea of inner freedom which has 
developed into an abiding actuality in an individual. 
Whence, as inner freedom is a relation between insight 
and volition, a double task is at once set before the 
teacher. It becomes his business to make actual each 
of these factors separately, in order that later a perma- 
nent relationship may result. 

But even here at the outset we need to bear in mind 
the identity of morality with the effort put forth to 
realize the permanent actuality of the harmony between 
insight and volition (45 : 7). 

This aim has been elaborated and given wide and 
effective currency by the disciples of Herbart. Charles 
A. McMurry, one of these disciples, accepts *' the moral, 
character-building aim as the central one in education," 
and summarizes its leading characteristics and merits 
as follows : — 

1. The attainment of moral excellence in conduct is 
the perfection of the individual. 

2. Ability to fulfill the moral law in the social rela- 
tions is the chief demand that society makes upon the 
individual. 

3. Moral enlightenment and growth toward moral 
conduct are subject to the same laws as other forms of 
mental culture. 

4. Several of the most important studies furnish 



CONTENT AIMS 63 

peculiarly strong and appropriate material for moral 
instruction. 

5. The school is not narrowed to ethical theory. As 
a social organization, through its activities and disci- 
pline, it furnishes also the transition from theory to 
practice and conduct. 

6. A fairly complete and practical scheme of moral 
education on the basis of ethics and pedagogy is within 
the reach of all teachers. 

7. Every wise and benevolent person knows that the 
first and last question to ask and to answer regarding 
a child is, " What are his moral quality and strength ? " 
(49 : 12 f.). 

The last sentence indicates the narrowness in which 
this aim is frequently conceived. In McMurry's discus- 
sion of the relative value of studies, one has the feeling 
that the sciences, for example, are brought into the cur- 
riculum in an arbitrary manner. They do not square 
with the aim, but common sense wants them, and so 
we shall have them. Such attempts cause De Garmo 
to say that " the Herbartian who lays all stress upon 
' the development of moral character ' transforms such 
subjects as mathematics, science, and accessories like 
physical and manual training, into mere tails to the 
literary and biblical kite " (14: 38). 

The trouble here arises from the fact that an effort is 
made to make a part serve for the whole. Morality is a 
large and never-to-be-forgotten element in man's life, but 
it is not all of it. We are dealing here with a statement 
of aim that is still more partial than social efficiency, 
^^ust as adjustment to life includes social efficiency, so 
social efficiency includes moral character, and both are 
included by the first mentioned. 

There is a tendency in modern educational and ethi- 



. 64 THE PRINCIPLES OF EDUCATIW^/;^^ (7 

cal writings to use the words " mor^I^^nd " social " as 
synonymous. Among the writers who do this may be 
mentioned Herbart, Spencer, Dewey, and Bagley. Bag- 
ley definitely argues for " the equivalence of the terms 
' social' and ' moral ' " (4 : 59), while the other writers 
mentioned implicitly assume their equivalence. From 
the theoretical standpoint this usage may be justifiable, 
but in its effect upon the popular mind it has so far 
proved quite futile, and it probably always wiU. In 
the popular mind these two words are not synonymous. 
When we say that a man is socially efficient, we do not 
mean the same thing as when we say that he is moral. 
It may be unfortunate that this is the case, but that it 
is the case cannot be denied and should be recognized. 
To disregard it in our theoretical discussions does not 
remove the fact, but only tends to bring about confusion. 
Now while we all feel that there is a difference be- 
tween the meaning of " moral " and " social," it is not 
so easy to indicate precisely wherein this difference con- 
. sists.yLooking at the words interchangeably, it is evi- 
""^nt that the meaning of " moral " is narrower than that 
of " social.'' It is clear enough that every moral act is 
also a social act, but custom is not so willing to say that 
every social act may also be designated by the word 
" moral." By_the force of tradition, the word "moral " 
/ has come to designafe a^garticular.,group of social acts, 
J" analn m a uyTuindb -it is restricted to but one type of 

such acts, — -tHe^relations between the sexes. On the 
whole, however, we come very~near the truth when we 
say that custom has restricted the word " moral " to 
the injunctions of the D/ecalogue. This restriction is 
arbitrary, instead of logical, and therefore cannot be 
indicated with greater sciientific precision, but the word 



^j^'o^wk:^, 



A^ 



CONTENT AIMS 65 

conveys this meaning so generally that it is worse than 
idle to ignore the fact. Our vocabulary apparently needs 
this word in its narrow and commonly accepted mean- 
ing, and we shall use it in this sense in these pages. The 
word that should be used in place of "moral," as syn- 
onymous with " social," is " ethical." 

28. The Aim of Good Character. This narrow mean- 
ing of the word " moral " is one reason why that word 
has been displaced in educational discussions by " social." 
" Social " has all the advantages of " moral " without its 
disadvantages. But there are other ways out of the dif- 
ficulty that confronts us here. Superintendent O. I. 
Woodley substitutes the word "good" for "moral," 
and states the aim of education as the development of 
good character,^ A good character he describes as one 
that embodies the best ideals of the civilization of which 
he is a part. Twentieth-century American character 
would embody in itself present-day American ideals, of 
which religious, social, political, and industrial ideals 
may be specified. 

So worded, this aim evidently becomes as broad or 
as narrow as the meaning that is read into the word 
"good." As interpreted by Woodley, this aim prob- 
ably includes just what the adjustment aim includes, 
and the difference becomes one largely of phraseology 
and point of view. But as this aim stands, it defines 
education merely from the subjective standpoint, leav- 
ing the objective aspect of man's life, for which educa- 
tion must also prepare, to be understood, or to be gra- 
tuitously supplied when the aim is interpreted. The 
formulation as it stands corresponds to the second haK 
of the aim as we have stated it on page 39, and there- 

^ Unpublished. 



66 THE PRINCIPLES OF EDUCATION 

fore it should logically be classed with the formal aims 
in the next chapter. But this aim is so closely related to 
the content aims treated in this chapter that it is more 
expedient to treat it here also. 

Ethically, it is essential that the subjective aspect of 
the aim be explicitly stated, but when it is recognized 
that the aim of education should render primary service 
in the selection of studies, it is evident that the subjec- 
tive aspect could be more easily spared in the statement 
than the objective, or environmental aspect. Both are, 
however, essential in a complete formulation, and when 
either is omitted, the formulation is in so far defective, 
no matter how it is ultimately interpreted. 

But there is yet another respect in which the formu- 
lation of the aim of education as good character is infe- 
rior for the scientific thinker to the formulation of the 
aim as adjustment to life. The latter is given purely 
from the scientific point of view, which is impartial, 
^while tl^ former is given from the human point of view, 
and so possesses a human or personal bias. This may 
at first glance appear as a merit rather than as a defect, 
but a Jittle serious reflection should make it clear that 
this is a defect. Character and morality, with which 
education unquestionably deals in a very fundamental 
way, are scientific as well as personal facts, and until 
education adopts the scientific instead of the personal 
point of view in regard to them, it cannot hope to com- 
mand the respect of scientific men and to make genuine 
and disinterested progress. 

The aims of moral and of good character have 
served to emphasize the moral and character elements 
in man's life. These are of fundamental importance, 
and no discussion of the aim of education can ever be 



CONTENT AIMS 67 

complete without giving them explicit attention. Man 
is adjusted to his environment through his subjective 
nature. It is not sufficient that his intellect be stored 
with information, but his moral impulses must also be 
awakened and character formed if he is to become a 
thoroughly reliable member of society. The moral 
status of the business world is far from what it might 
be, and while all the blame for this cannot be shouldered 
on the schools, some of it undoubtedly can. Man's en- 
vironment includes elements that absolutely demand 
moral sensitiveness and reliability of character, and 
educational theory and practice must ever bear this in 
mind. The home, the institution of property, and other 
equally cherished aspects of man's life rest upon moral 
traits. The discussion of the ways and means of moral 
instruction and training belongs to the Principles of 
Teaching, only the aim concerning us here ; but the 
matter will come up again from a different point of 
view in chapter ix. 

29. The Aim of Complete Living. A statement of 
the aim of education that has been current since the 
publication of Spencer's " Education " in 1860 is that 
of preparation for complete living. This is the formu- 
lation preferred by Hanus, who defines it as follows : 
" To live completely means to be as useful as possible 
and to be happy. By usefulness is meant service, i, e., 
any activity which promotes the material and spiritual 
interests of mankind, one or both. To be happy one 
must enjoy both his work and his leisure" (32 : 5). 

For the most complete statement of this aim one 
must go to Spencer. He says in part : — 

How to live ? — that is the essential question for us. 
Not how to live in the mere material sense only, but in 



68 THE PRINCIPLES OF EDUCATION 

the widest sense. The general problem which compre- 
hends every special problem is — the right ruling of 
conduct in all directions under all circumstances. In 
what way to treat the body ; in what way to treat the 
mind ; in what way to manage our affairs ; in what 
way to bring up a family ; in what way to behave as 
a citizen ; in what way to utilize all those sources of 
happiness which nature supplies, — how to use all our 
faculties to the greatest advantage of ourselves and 
others ; how to live completely ? And this, being the 
great thing needful for us to learn, is, by consequence, 
the great thing which education has to teach. To pre- 
pare us for complete living is the function which edu- 
cation has to discharge ; and the only rational mode of 
judging of any educational course is to judge in what 
degree it discharges this function (70 : 30). 

The leading types of activity that constitute human 
life, and that education should meet, are thus classi- 
fied:— 

1. Those activities which directly minister to self- 
preservation. 2. Those activities which, by securing the 
necessaries of life, indirectly minister to self-preserva- 
tion. 3. Those activities which have for their end the 
rearing and discipline of offspring. 4. Those activi- 
ties which are involved in the maintenance of proper 
social and political relations. 5. Those miscellaneous 
activities which make up the leisure part of life, de- 
voted to the gratification of the tastes and feelings 
(70:32). 

In this definition of the aim, the word " complete " 
has always caused trouble. What is complete living, and 
how are we to know when it is attained ? The word is 
not sufficiently specific, and it is not evident how there 
can be any effective concentration in education under 



CONTENT AIMS 69 

its guidance. This criticism was anticipated by Spencer 
as follows : — 

Of course the ideal of education is complete prepara- 
tion in all these divisions. But failing this ideal, as in our 
phase of civilization every one must do more or less, the 
aim should be to maintain a due proportion between the 
degrees of preparation in each. Not exhaustive cultiva- 
tion in any one, supremely important though it may be ; 
not even an exclusive attention to the two, three, or four 
divisions of greatest importance ; but an attention to all, 
— greatest where the value is greatest, less where the 
value is less, and least where the value is least (70 : 35). 

That is, Spencer does not necessarily mean complete 
living, in the sense of maximum achievement through- 
out, but rather halanced or harmonious living. 

With this interpretation in mind, we see that Sj)en- 
cer means by " complete living" nothing different from 
what we mean by adjustment to life. The relative merit 
of the two formulations apparently rests entirely on the 
adequacy of their wording. But in this respect it seems 
clear that the formulation we have adopted has the ad- 
vantage. It is unquestionably more definite, and our full 
statement specifies both the objective and subjective 
aspects of the educative process, which are its most 
fundamental characteristics, while Spencer's formulation 
does not specify either one, and so does not penetrate the 
educational problem at all. When education is defined 
as the process of adjusting man to those elements of his 
environment that are of concern in present human life, 
and of conferring upon him the ability to make efficient 
and proper use of his own powers, or by some equiva- 
lent statement, a definite and fruitful beginning is made 
in educational analysis. The foundation is laid for both 



70 THE PRINCIPLES OF EDUCATION 

the principles of education and the principles of teach- 
ing. It is recognized at the outset that education is re- 
lative to the native powers of the person who is educated 
and to the environment for which it must prepare. This 
lays the basis for the scientific investigation in both 
directions. 

Educational psychology and the principles of teach- 
ing have received independent recognition for some 
time, but it has not always been explicitly recognized 
that the content of education must be determined by 
means of an inductive inquiry into man's environment. 
Education must not only be based upon the science of the 
mind, but for its content it must be based on the objec- 
tive aspects of human life. These two phases of the 
problem are obviously interrelated, but in the exposi- 
tion of educational theory it is practically necessary to 
give them separate treatment. The contention that the 
objective aspects of man's life grow out of his subjective 
nature, and so may be deduced therefrom, cannot be 
worked out in practice. Outside of our own immediate 
introspection, which is difficult and frequently faulty, 
we mustjlways-infer subjective nature from objective, 
^ttvrties, and even wrEh ourselves "this order is usually 
ifchenbetteFone^ A^ersairhas his capacities for art, liter- 
ature, and science revealed to him by exercising himself 
in art, literature, and science, and without such exercise 
he really does not know himself. 

30. Conclusion. In concluding this chapter it may 
be said that the various statements of the aim of educa- 
tion that we have considered all include about the same 
things when elaborated. There is little or no disagree- 
ment among educators about the fundamentals of edu- 
cation itself, and the divergences that exist arise mainly 



CONTENT AIMS 71 

out of the attempts at definition. This makes the differ- 
ences lie far more in verbal statement than in educa- 
tional content, but it does not necessarily render the 
differences innocuous. The various formulations that are 
current are not all of equal merit, and unless the student 
clearly understands the import of their differences in 
wording, confusion is likely to result. An acceptable 
formulation must (1) be broad enough to include all 
phases of human life, and (2) it must be both objec- 
tive and subjective in its reference. The social aim, as 
defined by Dewey, explicitly meets the second criterion, 
but lacks in breadth. The moral aim lacks still more in 
breadth, but as morality is both subjective and objec- 
tive in its reference, this aim may be taken to meet the 
second criterion by implication. The aim of good char- 
acter, while broad enough as interpreted, is nevertheless 
subjective only as it stands, and, together with the aim 
of complete living, it is so indefinite that all real mean- 
ing must be read into it. 

REFERENCES 

Bagley, Educative Process, 55-65. 

Bain, Science of Education, 1-10. 

BooNE, Science of Education, 25-43. 

Dewey, Educational Situation, 9-49. 

Dewey, Ethical Principles Underlying Education. 

Dewey, School and Society, 19-44. 

Keith, Elementary Education, 18-43. 

Lang, Educational Creeds of the XIX Century. 

Lange and De Garmo, Herbart's Outlines, 7-14. 

McMuRRY, Elements of General Method, 1-19. 

Spencer, Education, chapter i. 



CHAPTER V 

OTHER STATEMENTS OF THE AIM OF EDUCATION 
(B) Formal Aims 

31. Acceptance of Formal Aims. The various aims 
of education discussed in the preceding chapter are aR 
held by present-day specialists in education, as is evi- 
denced by the quotations from current writers. This 
cannot be said so generally of the aims now to be dis- 
cussed, but as they are still widely accepted by writers 
and teachers who are not educational specialists, and 
as their consideration will serve to make the essential 
qualities of an educational aim still more explicit, we 
must study them. 

32. Content and Formal Aims Distinguished. The 
sub-titles of these two chapters serve to indicate the 
essential point of difference between the two classes of 
aims. One class may be termed " content aims " because 
all the aims in it make more or less explicit reference 
to the content of the life and environment for which 
education is to prepare, while the other class may be 
termed " formal aims " because, as will be seen, the 
aims under it have primary reference to the nature of 
the person who is educated, and to/ the formal changes 
in disposition and abstract mental powers that edu- 
cation should produce. The terms " sociological " and 
" psychological," or " objective " and " subjective," 
might be used in place of " content " and " formal," 



FORMAL AIMS 73 

but they do not express the essential thought here so 
well. " Sociological " has the same limitations as " so- 
cial," discussed in the preceding chapter, and " psycho- 
logical " might not include such subjective metaphysical 
speculations as those of Froebel, for example ; while 
" objective," strictly interpreted, would exclude cer- 
tain subjective aspects that are contentful rather than 
formal, and " subjective " would wrongly include these 
same aspects. As a case in point may be mentioned 
the appreciation of art or of literature, which is cer- 
tainly contentful, but which may also be classed as sub- 
jective. 

Logically, it is obvious that we should have three 
classes of educational aims instead of two. There should 
be the contentful aims that have objective reference, 
the formal ainas,. tTiaFhave subjective reference, and a 
third class that properly combines the two. The class 
omitted here is really the first, or objective, and the 
word "contentful" is used to designate the third. Only 
two classes are made, because the first is practically 
non-existent. There are no educators who restrict them- 
selves to the intrinsic value of knowledge, omitting 
entirely the formal values. As a matter of fact, the 
reverse statement is also true, namely, that there are no 
educators who restrict themselves to the formal value 
of education, omitting entirely the intrinsic value of 
knowledge. The differences that are actually found are 
differences of emphasis, one group of educators empha- 
sizing the content side of education and the other the 
formal side. In the content class we may place all edu- 
cational aims that subordinate the formal value of educa- 
tion, without, however, necessarily disparaging it, while 
in the formal class we may place all aims that coordi- 



/ 



74 THE PRINCIPLES OF EDUCATION 

nate the formal with the contentful, or that actually 
place the formal above the contentful. 

33. The Doctrine of Unfoldment. A typical defini- 
tion of the formal type is given by Stein, who says : — 

Education is the harmonious and equable evolution 
of the human faculties by a method based upon the 
nature of the mind for developing all the faculties of 
the soul, for stirring up and nourishing all the princi- 
ples of life, while shunning all one-sided culture and 
taking account of the sentiments upon which the 
strength and worth of men depend. 

Pestalozzi speaks of the purpose of education as 
follows : — 

Education means a natural, progressive, and system- 
atic development of all the powers. 

To engage the attention of the child, to exercise his 
judgments, to open his heart to noble sentiments, is, 
I think, the chief end of education ; and how can this 
end be reached so surely as by training the child as 
early as possible in the various duties of domestic life ? 
(59 : 358.) 

Sound education stands before me symbolized by a 
tree planted near fertilizing waters. A little seed which 
contains the design of the tree, its form and its proper- 
ties, is placed in the soil. The whole tree is an unin- 
terrupted chain of organic parts, the plan of which ex- 
isted in its seed and root. Man is similar to the tree. 
In the new-born child are hidden those faculties which 
are to unfold during life. The individual and separate 
organs of his being form themselves gradually into 
unison, and build up humanity in the image of God. 
The education of man is a purely moral result. It is 
not the educator who puts new powers and faculties 
into man, and imparts to him breath and life. He only 
takes care that no untoward influence shall disturb 



FORMAL AIMS 75 

nature's march of development. The moral, intellectual, 
and practical powers of man must be nourished within 
himself and not from artificial substitutes. 

Froebel takes very much the same view of education 
as Pestalozzi, complicated somewhat by his philosophy, 
but it is not so easy to pick from his works quotations 
that concisely express his position. In the opening chap- 
ter of " The Education of Man " he gives this defini- 
tion : " Education consists in leading man, as a thinking, 
intelligent being, growing into seK-consciousness, to a 
pure and unsullied, conscious and free representation 
of the inner law of divine Unity, and in teaching him 
ways and means thereto." 

These definitions vary in their wording, but they are 
much alike in meaning. They all have reference to the 
organization, development, and unfoldment of man's 
powers or faculties, and they imply or specify that this 
process should be harmonious and equable. The child 
is compared with the growing flower that must be 
brought to its formal perfection of bloom. The content 
of what the child is taught is not emphasized, for that 
is looked upon as secondary. External conditions must, 
indeed, be right, but chiefly or only because of their 
formal subjective influence. This educational doctrine 
may be called the doctrine f]f t/r^fnldmp.nt. 

All the quotations that we have given come from the 
beginning of the nineteenth century, when the psycholo- 
gical aspect of education was in its prime, but this as- 
pect was held long before that time, and has been held 
much later. It has been given expression in practically 
every period of history. Plato, writing nearly four 
hundred years before Christ, said : " Education consists 
in giving the body and the soul all the perfection of 



76 THE PRINCIPLES OF EDUCATION 

which they are capable" ; while Angell, writing in 1908, 
says : " Education has as its function the symmetrical 
development of the powers of the individual " (3 : 11). 

34. The Doctrine of Formal Discipline. Another 
educational doctrine that belongs to the formal class is 
the doctrine of formal discipline. This doctrine does 
not so much concern itself with the harmonious unfold- 
ment of all the powers, which implies a wide range of 
activity, but it rests on the assumption that a mental 
power may be exercised and perfected in a narrow range 
of activity, and that it may then be applied in any de- 
partment of human life. Reasoning power might thus 
be developed in geometry, and then be used generally 
in law or business. The generalization or transfer of 
the power that has been exercised is the keynote of the 
doctrine, and distinguishes it from the preceding, which 
makes no reference to such generalization. This distin- 
guishes the two doctrines in theory, but in the litera- 
ture of education it is not always easy to tell on which 
side a certain writer belongs. The two doctrines are not 
incompatible, and one and the same writer may hold to 
both, and he may do this without recognizing them as 
two. A writer who holds to them both without distin- 
guishing them can be classified merely as subscribing 
to a formal conception of education. 

35. "Discipline" and "Training" Distinguished, 
The word " discipline " must be carefully distinguished 
from the word "training." This is not always done, 
and the result leads to much ambiguity and confusion. 
By " discipline " in educational and psychological lit- 
erature is technically meant the formal development of 
i]3£-CieiitaLpowers irrespe-Ci ire of knowledge conten t^ 
and the general application of these powers in the activ- 



FORMAL AIMS 77 

ities of life, as developed in the preceding paragraph. 
By "training" is meant drill in the performance of 
so me 'specilic activity^ tor the ^ke of performing that 
activity. Thus, a person may be trained in addition, in 
teaching, or in judging stock, to the end that he may 
become proficient in addition, in teaching, or in judg- 
ing stock. Any further results are incidental and sec- 
ondary from this point of view. 

36. The Doctrine Illustrated. Like the doctrine of 
unfoldment, the doctrine of formal discipline has been 
held throughout history, and has frequently been wide- 
spread. The Greeks assumed it in theory, and rested 
their educational system upon it. In the modern form 
it began its rise, gradually at first, at the time of Locke 
(1632-1704), and it is only now beginning to wane. 
Because of its present or recent vitality, and the amount 
of scientific work that has been done upon it, we shall 
consider it in some detail in the next chapter. Here we 
shall note only its formal and subjective nature. 

Locke did not hold to this doctrine consistently 
throughout his writings. In his " Thoughts Concerning 
Education " he scarcely intimates it, but the following 
quotations from his " Conduct of the Understanding " 
are entirely in harmony with it : — 

Would you have a man reason well, you must use 
him to it betimes ; exercise his mind in observing the 
connection of ideas and following them in train. Nothing 
does this better than mathematics, which therefore should 
be taught all those who have the time and opportunity, 
not so much to make them mathematicians as to make 
them reasonable creatures. . . . Not that I think it 
necessary that all men should be deep mathematicians, 
but that, having got the way of reasoning, which that 



78 THE PRINCIPLES OF EDUCATION 

study necessarily brings the mind to, they might be able 
to transfer it to other parts of knowledge as they shall 
have occasion (pp. 23, 26). 

The business of education ... is not, as I think, to 
make them [the young] perfect in any one of the sci- 
ences, but so to open and dispose of their minds as may 
best make them capable of any when they shall apply 
themselves to it. . . . It is therefore to give them 
this freedom that I think they should be made to look 
into all sorts of knowledge, and exercise their under- 
standings in so wide a variety and stock of knowledge. 
But I do not propose it as a variety and stock of know- 
ledge, but a variety and freedom of thinking ; as an 
increase of the powers and activity of the^ mind, not as 
an enlargement of its possessions (p. 44). 

Huxley's famous definition of a liberal education is 
also written primarily from the disciplinary point of 
view, although it does not fail entirely to refer to the 
content of education. It runs as follows : — 

That man, I think, has a liberal education who has 
been so trained in youth that his body is the ready ser- 
vant of his will, and does with ease and pleasure all the 
work that, as a mechanism, it is capable of ; whose in- 
tellect is a clear, cold, logic engine, with all its parts of 
equal strength, and in smooth working order ; ready, 
like a steam engine, to be turned to any kind of work, 
and spin the gossamers as well as forge the anchors of 
the mind; whose mind is stored with a knowledge of the 
great and fundamental truths of nature, and of the laws 
of her operations ; one who, no stunted ascetic, is full 
of life and fire, but whose passions are trained to come 
to heel by a vigorous will, the servant of a tender con- 
science ; who has learned to love all beauty, whether 
of nature or of art, to hate all vileness, and to respect 
others as himself. Such an one, and no other, I conceive 



FORMAL AIMS 79 

has a liberal education ; for he is, as completely as a 
man can be, in harmony with nature (38 : 86). 

Fouillee continually takes the view that mental force 
and intellectual power can be developed quite apart from 
knowledge content. The following quotation is typical : 

The scientific man is not made by teaching him science, 
for true science, like poetry, is invention. We can learn 
to build a railway by rule of thimib, but those who in- 
vented railways did so only by the force of the intellec- 
tual power they had acquired, and not by the force of the 
mere knowledge they had received ; it is therefore intel- 
lectual force that we must aim at developing (28 : 38). 

Fouillee evidently confuses native with acquired capa- 
city, and the selective with the preparatory function of 
education. 

In recent educational writings this doctrine is so gen- 
erally assumed that further quotations are unnecessary.^ 
A number are included with the exercises at the close of 
the chapter. The doctrine assumes that " Discipline as a 
process creates power and converts this power into skill. 
Some of the special intellectual qualities included under 
the term are insight or jyenetratlon, comprehension ^ver- 
satility, good judgment, discrimination " (62 : 154). 

37. Formal Aims Criticised. All formal aims of edu- 
f, cation may be criticised together by pointing out that 
they are ^on-sel e ctive. Such aims hold the same rela- 
tion to the curriculum as subjective standards in ethics 
hold to the content of the moral life. To say, for exam- 
ple, that pleasure, even in the highest sense, should be 

^ For a collection of such quotations from modem educational 
and psychological literature, see Thorndike, Educational Fsychology^ 
pp. 82-84. 



80 THE PRINCIPLES OF EDUCATION 

the criterion of conduct scarcely gets us started in ethi- 
cal inquiry. It is non-selective and guides us nowhere. 
Pleasure, or even happiness, or blessedness, is not some- 
thing that can be directly chosen or picked up, for by 
itself it has no existence. It is always connected with 
particular objects or activities, and can be obtained only 
by choosing those objects or activities. In education we 
have a precisely similar situation. Formal aims point in- 
ward to the mind merely, and not outward to the world, 
and so give us no objective criterion for the evaluation 
and selection of subject-matter. The phrases "unfold- 
ment of the powers " and " mental discipline " no doubt 
imply a careful study of the mind in order that the pro- 
cess of unfoldment or discipline may be most efficiently 
accomplished, but they give no hint that the material 
of education itseK should be selected with reference to 
future usefulness. If it were discovered, for example, 
that solving puzzles unfolded or disciplined the mind 
best, this should then, ipso facto ^ comprise the material 
of education. Nor is this overdrawn. Locke recommends 
the study of mathematics for precisely this reason, and 
the study of Latin and Greek is still frequently defended 
on this ground. C. Lloyd Morgan, in his " Psychology 
for Teachers," says : " It is as a means of training the 
faculties of perception and of generalization that the 
study of such a language as Latin in comparison with 
English is so valuable" (p. 186). 

But this criterion is palpably inadequate, for education 
is inherently a two-sided process. It implies an organism 
with a plastic nature on the one hand, and an objective 
world to which it must be adjusted on the other. Neither 
of these aspects can be omitted, and the content aims 
either imply both or explicitly state them. One guides 



FORIMAL AIMS 81 

us to the material and aims of instruction, and the other 
discloses the possibilities and methods of training. One 
gives us the studies and exercises of the school, and the 
other our genetic and educational psychology. 

When we push our examination of the formal aims 
still farther, we find that both types are meaningless 
as they stand. What is to be our criterion in judging 
the effectiveness or value of any particular kind of un- 
f oldment or discipline ? Unless we accept a mere say-so, 
it cannot be anything but the objective requirements 
of life. Every word in a formal statement of the aim 
gets its meaning from these requirements. The merit 
of unfoldment or discipline must always be judged by 
its consequences in action, and this is the criterion that 
is usually assumed and is sometimes explicitly stated. 
That variety of unfoldment or discipline is good which 
makes for efficient life in business, on the farm, or in 
the professions. Says Joseph Payne : " The study of 
the Latin language itself does eminently discipline the 
faculties and secure in a greater degree than that of 
the other subjects we have discussed the formation and 
growth of mental qualities which are the best prepara- 
tion for the business of life " (61 1 264). ^ 

Whether this statement, implied or expressed, really 
saves these aims we shall consider in the next chapter. 

38. Content Side not Always Omitted. To say that 
all those who pin their faith to a formal definition of 
education entirely neglect the objective requirements 
of life in their evaluation of subject-matter would not 
be just. While some, at least occasionally, take this 
extreme position, others do not. The second quotation 
from Pestalozzi (p. 74) makes distinct reference to 

1 Italics mine. 



82 THE PRINCIPLES OF EDUCATION 

domestic duties as means of education, but they are 
looked upon merely as means, and almost apologetically. 
They are regarded as subordinate to the subjective 
qualities to be developed. Froebel is more outspoken in 
this respect, and more than once giyes expression to 
sentences such as this : " Education must not only be 
founded on life as it actually appears, must not only be 
connected with life, but must also form itself in harmony 
with the requirements of life, of the surroundings, and 
of the time, and with what they offer." This recognizes 
the needs of the objective aspects of life explicitly, and 
shows the difficulty of making rigid classifications. 
The difference is sometimes merely one of emphasis. 
Herbart is usually placed on the formal or psychologi- 
cal side instead of the content or sociological. He places 
his emphasis mostly on subjective qualities, but moral- 
ity, his avowed aim, points directly to society. 

39. Historical Considerations. The discussion of the 
development of educational theories should be left to 
the history of education, but historical considerations 
throw so much light on the interrelations of the various 
aims we have discussed, that a short digression is in 
place at this point. Modern education may be said to 
begin with the Renaissance. At that time the heart 
and soul of classical culture were rediscovered, and the 
classical languages took a new and vital position in 
the curriculum. At first these languages were studied 
for the content and life they contained, but this soon 
degenerated into formalism.^ The languages, especially 
Latin, were studied for the language merely, and a 

^ The word " formal " here has reference to the form, as opposed to 
the content, of the subject-matter, and not to the form of the mind as 
above. 



FORMAL AIMS 83 

certain kind of teclinical knowledge came to be the end. 
THis was assisted by the trend taken in religious edu- 
cation, which also became formal and dialectical, and 
in the eighteenth century, during the period of the 
enlightenment, formalism was also reinforced by the 
realistic movement. Social philosophy was individu- 
alistic, and the aim of culture came to be a soulless, 
formal, aristocratic display of knowledge and exact pro- 
priety. Naturally, a reaction took place. 

This reaction was headed by Rousseau, followed by 
Basedow, Pestalozzi, Herbart, and Froebel. Seeing the 
results of the prevailing intellectual culture, and the 
uses to which knowledge was being put, Rousseau con- 
demned it all, and called out for a return to Nature. 
The child, and not knowledge, was to be made the 
center of education. Heretofore child-nature had not 
been recognized. The child was looked upon as a min- 
iature adult. He was dressed like the adult, was ex- 
pected to act like the adult, and he studied the same 
things as the adult, only in a less degree. 

This reaction gave rise to the psychological aim of 
education that we have called the doctrine of unfold- 
ment. The center of gravity was shifted from know- 
ledge to the child, and to " psychologize " education, 
to adapt it to the nature of the child, and to unfold his 
developing powers, became a fad. 

The content of the curriculum was not always af- 
fected by this movement. Pestalozzi, indeed, laid stress 
upon domestic duties and neighborhood industries as 
educational forces, but usually it was a more natural 
and easy way of learning Latin that was sought. That 
is, the psychological tendency early took the direction 
of improving the method of teaching instead of reform- 



84 THE PRINCIPLES OF EDUCATION 

ing the curriculum, tlie sphere to which we now see that 
it primarily, although not solely, belongs. 

The reform of the curriculum itself was begun by the 
realistic movement of the sixteenth and seventeenth 
centuries, and was effectively continued by the scientific 
and sociological tendencies of the nineteenth century. 
In the sociological tendency Pestalozzi, Herbart, and 
Froebel also participated. These two tendencies formed 
parts of one and the same movement, — the movement 
toward the objective side of social betterment, — and 
they have conjointly given us the content aims of edu- 
cation as we now have them. The scientific tendency 
was but an aspect of the sociological, a relation that 
would come out more clearly if the word " content," 
instead of " sociological," were used, for that clearly 
includes the sciences, but the latter is the word gen- 
erally used in the histories of education. The psycho- 
logical and sociological tendencies are thus seen to be 
in no wise contradictory, but to be supplementary to 
each other. Briefly, one gives us the method, and the 
other the content of education. 

The realistic movement of the sixteenth and seven- 
teenth centuries was, through its formal tendency, not 
only in part responsible for the naturalistic and psy- 
chological reaction, but it also had much to do in bring- 
ing forward the doctrine of formal discipline. It did 
this by laying emphasis on the study of natural objects 
and other things in the environment, and prosecuting 
this study through the vernacular. The traditional 
classical curriculum thus became undermined, and its 
advocates had to look for new support. This they found 
in the supposed disciplinary value of the classics. No 
proof was advanced for this value, and the peculiar 



FORMAL AIMS 85 

thing is that it was not questioned by its opponents, 
who met the issue by claiming equal disciplinary value 
for the new subjects, which had the additional advan- 
tage of greater practical value. 



EXERCISES 

1. May the aim and the meaning of education be distin- 
guished and separately treated ? (See Keith.) 

2. Davidson characterizes education as a process of world 
building. Justify this characterization. 

3. Point out how the aim of adjustment includes those of 
utility, knowledge, unfoldraent, and discipline. 

4. Could Huxley's definition of a liberal education be 
otherwise classified than as a formal aim, as is done in the 
text ? Why ? 

5. What other criticisms may be offered against the aim 
of the harmonious development of all the powers than are 
offered in the text ? (Cf . 4 : 50 f.) 

6. There is a tendency now to use the words " moral " and 
" social " as synonymous. Can this be done ? If not, where is 
the line to be drawn between them ? 

7. Show that, while the aims of adjustment, social effi- 
ciency, good character, and complete living differ more in 
words than in substance, they are, nevertheless, written from 
different points of view. 

8. Discuss : " I believe that to set up any end outside of 
education, as furnishing its goal and standard, is to deprive 
the educational process of much of its meaning, and tends to 
make us rely upon false and external stimuli in dealing with 
the child" (44:5). 

9. In what sense are the words " discipline " and " train- 
ing " used in the following ? " But under the dominance of 
Christianity education received a wholly new character. In- 
struction in doctrine and training in Church ceremonials 
were substituted for the intellectual element ; rigid discipline 



86 THE PRINCIPLES OF EDUCATION 

in conduct, for the physical and rhetorical training. . . . From 
the point of view of this discipline, all that was an outgrowth 
of natural interests was to be suppressed " (52 : 101). 

*' Culture . . . represents the vital union of information 
and discipline " (16 : 19). 

10. Classify the following definitions of education, or state 
from what point of view each is written : — 

1. The end of education is community life. — F. W. 
Parker. 

2. Education is a development of the whole man. — Co- 

MENIUS. 

3. Education is a conscious or voluntary evolution.— 
Davidson. 

4. Education aims at the realization of the typical man. — 
Payne. 

5. Education is the art of forming men, not specialists. — 
Montaigne. 

6. Education means the universal distribution of extant 
knowledge. — Ward. 

7. It is the business of education to develop the ideal prize 
man. — Richter. 

8. The work of education is to make changes in human 
minds and bodies. — Thorndike. 

9. What sculpture is to the block of marble, education is 
to the human soul. — Addison. 

10. The attainment of a sound mind in a sound body is 
the end of education. — Locke. 

11. Education is not the storing of knowledge, but the 
development of power. — Orcutt. 

12. Education is any process or act which results in know- 
ledge or power or skill. — White5. 

13. The end of education is to produce a well-balanced 
and many-sided interest. — Herb ART. 

14. The end of education is to train away all impediment, 
and to leave only pure power. — Emerson. 

15. The true aim of education is the attainment of happi- 
ness through perfect virtue. — Aristotle. 



FORMAL AIMS 87 

16. The realization of all the possibilities of human growth 
and development is education. — Parker. 

17. The object of education is preparation for more effec- 
tive service in state and church. — Luther. 

18. The aim of education is the forming of a complete 
man, skilled in art and industry. — Rabelais. 

19. The primary principle of education is the determina- 
tion of the pupil to self-activity. — Hamilton. 

20. The proper education of to-day is a preparation for 
the duties and responsibilities of life. — C. M. Woodward. 

21. Education is the process by which the individual man 
elevates himself to the species. — Rosenkranz. 

22. The object of education is the realization of a faith- 
ful, pure, inviolate, and hence holy life. — Froebel. 

23. Education is a process of becoming socialized by par- 
ticipation in the actual and ideal life of the race. — Keith. 

24. Morality is universally acknowledged as the highest 
aim of humanity, and consequently of education. — Herbart. 

25. The main purpose of education is to permit the indi- 
vidual to participate in the conscious knowledge of the race. 

— Payne. 

26. The educational ideal is an adequate participation in 
the present life of the race and in the ideals of the race. — 
Keith. 

27. Teaching may be defined as the awakening of another's 
mind, and the training of its faculties to a normal self activity. 

— F. H. Palmer. 

28. The college . . . should give . . . elasticity of faculty 
and breadth of vision, so that they shall have a surplus of 
mind to expend. — Woodrow Wilson. 

29. The end of education is triple : (1) To develop the 
mental faculties, (2) to communicate knowledge, and (3) to 
mould character. — Thiry. 

30. The aim, then, of education being flexibility and ex- 
actness, we have to consider by what means these two ends 
can best be reached. — Matthews. 

31. Education is the organization of acquired habits of 



88 THE PRINCIPLES OF EDUCATION 

action such as will fit the individual to his physical and social 
environment. — William James. 

32. The end of education is to render the individual as 
much as possible an instrument of happiness, first to himself, 
and next to others. — James Mill. 

33. Education, in the most extensive sense of the word, 
may comprehend every preparation that is made in our youth 
for the sequel of our lives. — Paley. 

34. The function of education is to assist and direct the 
processes of physical and mental growth during the formative 
periods of childhood and youth. — Painter. 

35. I call a complete and generous education that which 
fits a man to perform justly, skillfully, and magnanimously 
all the offices, both public and private, of peace and war. — 
Milton. 

36. Arithmetic, if judiciously taught, forms in the pupil 
habits of mental attention, argumentative sequence, absolute 
accuracy, and satisfaction in truth as a result. — - Joseph 
Payne. 

37. It is the purpose of education so to exercise the fac- 
ulties of the mind that the infinitely varied experiences of 
after-life may be observed and reasoned upon with best effect. 

— Jevons. 

38. Education may be tentatively defined ... as the pro- 
cess by means of which the individual acquires experiences 
that will function in rendering more efficient his future action. 

— Bagley. 

39. One great end of education is to communicate to the 
pupil that sort of knowledge which is most likely to be useful 
to him in the sphere of life which Providence has assigned 
to him. — Tate. 

40. Education is the process of remaking experience, giv- 
ing it a more socialized value through increased individual 
experience, by giving the individual better control over his 
own powers. — Dewey. 

41. The faculty which is by far the most important of the 
mind, and which we must earnestly strive to develop and 



FORMAL AIMS 89 

perfect in our pupils, is the faculty of judgment, or the rea- 
soning faculty. — Babbitt. 

42. The purpose of education is to train children, not with 
reference to their success in the present state of society, but 
to a better possible state, in accordance with an ideal con- 
ception of humanity. — Kant. 

43. It has been well said that an educated man has a sharp 
axe in his hand, and an uneducated man a dull one. I should 
say that the purpose of a college education is to sharpen the 
axe to its keenest edge. — Nathaniel Butler. 

44. Education is the preparation of the individual for re- 
ciprocal union with society ; the preparation of the individual 
so that he can help his fellow-men, and in return receive and 
appropriate their help. — W. T. Harris. 

45. Education is the sum of the reflective efforts by which 
we aid nature in the development of the physical, intellectual, 
and moral faculties of man in view of his perfection, his hap- 
piness, and his social destination. — Compayre. 

46. Education includes the culture which each generation 
purposely gives to those who are to be its successors in order 
to qualify them for at least keeping up, and, if possible, rais- 
ing the improvement that has been attained. — Mill. 

47. Education is the acquiring of such knowledge in such 
a way as shall enable us to appreciate the true value of ex- 
ternal and internal conditions ; to adjust ourselves to them ; 
to adapt ourselves to progressive conditions. — F. C. Luck. 

48. The value of the study of German " lies in the scien- 
tific study of the language itself, in the consequent training 
of the reason, of the powers of observation, comparison, and 
synthesis ; in short, in the upbuilding and strengthening of 
the scientific intellect." — Calvin Thomas. 

49. Education is the instruction of intellect in the laws of 
nature ; under which name I include, not merely things and 
their forces, but men and their ways ; and the fashioning 
of the affections and the will into an earnest and living desire 
to move in harmony with their laws. — Huxley. 

50. A liberal education is one in which the mind is culti- 



90 THE PRINCIPLES OF EDUCATION 

vated, not as an instrument toward some ulterior end, but as 
an end to himself alone ; in other words, an education in 
which his absolute perfection as a man, and not merely his 
relative dexterity as a professional man, is the scope immedi- 
ately in view. — Hamilton. 

COLLATERAL READING AND REFERENCES 

Bagley, Educative Process, 40-55. 

Matthews, Principles of Education, 7-11. 

Monroe, Brief Course, 254-409. 

Monroe, Text-Book, 505-759. 

O'Shea, Education as Adjustment, 57-75, 133-153. 




CHAPTER VI '-^O^ 

THE DOCTRINE OF FORMAL DISCIPLINE 

40. The Question at Issue. The nature of the doc- 
trine of formal discipline was briefly indicated in the 
preceding chapter. In criticism the point was made that 
the doctrine is non-selective in regard to the objective 
content of the curriculum, and that it is in so far defec- 
tive. But perhaps there is no need of an educational 
criterion to be objectively selective ; perhaps formal 
training is extensively possible and constitutes a suffi- 
cient preparation for meeting the various activities of 
life. If this be so, we have here an adequate guide for 
the activities of the school. The question is one that 
must obviously be considered on its merits as revealed 
by discussion and scientific investigation. 

41. The Doctrine Stated. The advocates of this doc- 
trine maintain that the chief, if not the sole, value of the 
educative process consists in the formal development of 

the mind's powers, in producing a fund of mental force oc 

strength, and in establishing certain generalized habits. _ 
Con tent or intrinsi c values are either disregarded alto- 
gether, or are given a secondary position. It makes little 
difference what is studied so long as it is studied right. 
The benefit received comes from the process of acquisi- 
tion rather than from the content acquired. 

The powers and habits once developed may then be 
applied in the various activities of life with little or no 



loss of effect. The power of reasoning developed in math- 
ematics or^Iogic may later be used in law, medicine, or 



92 THE PRINCIPLES OF EDUCATION 

business ; and the habit of concentration developed in 
solving problems in cube root or in translating Greek 
may be likewise extended. Observation, memory, dili- 
gence, accuracy, and other habits and powers are taken 
to be subject to the same rule. It has even been main- 
tained that the benefit accruing is still less specific. 
Fouillee assumes that the result of education is a fund of 
mental power or force which is developed by any mental 
activity whatsoever, and which may later be drawn off 
by any activity whatsoever. (See above, p. 79.) From 
this point of view the mind may be likened to a storage 
battery that may be charged, and the power accumulated 
may then be used quite independent of its origin. Roark 
reaches a similar conclusion, but in a different way. He 
argues as follows : — 

Since the mind is a unit and the faculties are simply 
phases or manifestations of its activity, whatever strength- 
ens one faculty indirectly strengthens all others. The 
verbal memory seems to be an exception to this state- 
ment, however, for it may be abnormally cultivated with- 
out involving to any profitable extent the other faculties. 
But only things that are rightly perceived and rightly 
understood can be rightly remembered. Hence, whatever 
develops the acquisitive and assimilative powers will also 
strengthen memory ; and conversely, rightly strength- 
ening the memory necessitates the developing and train- 
ing of the other powers (64 : 27). 

42. Origin in False Psychology. It is evident from 
these characterizations, whether their conclusions are 
false or true, that they have their origin in false psy- 
chology, in part at least. Roark assumes a mind with a 
homogeneous unity something like that of a carpenter's 
tool, say a hatchet. The variety of the uses to which a 



THE DOCTRINE OF FORMAL DISCIPLINE 95 

hatchet can be put corresponds to the variety of the func- 
tions of the mind, and as the whole of the hatchet is 
always acting in any situation, so the whole of the mind is 
always acting. Improving such a homogeneous object for 
one function would naturally improve it about equally 
for all functions. But it is evident to the merest tyro in 
psychology that the localization of function in the brain 
precludes any such unity of the mind.) The unity of the 
mind is far more like that of the body than that of the 
hatchet. (It is a unity of function through a Aiariety of 
parts or organs, and not a unity of structure. ) 

A similar criticism holds against the assuinption of 
FouiUee, that the mind is a reservoir of force or energy. 
According to the researches of recent psychology, the 
m ind is not a ny such thing, and any deductions made 
from the assumption must be looked upon with suspicion. 

Another system of psychology that favors formal cul- 
ture is the antiquated faculty psychology. This is no longer 
held by any recognized psychologists, but its validity is 
still often naively assumed by teachers and by writers on 
education. It errs in assuming too much independence 
for the various parts or faculties of the mind. It assumes 
that observation, memory, imagination, reason, feeling, 
etc., are entities, something like carpenter's tools, that 
may be improved or injured in and by themselves. In- 
stead of being analogous to one tool, the mind is here 
made to be analogous to a set of tools. The different fac- 
ulties are not taken to exist in complete isolation from 
one another, yet it is assumed that each faculty can be 
developed quite independently of the others. Observa- 
tion, for example, might be developed by the sciences, 
reason by mathematics, memory by the languages, and 
feeling by literature. 



m THE PRINCIPLES OF EDUCATION 

(No such distinct faculties as are here assumed are 
knbwn to modern psychologyJ It is furthermore recog- 
nized that a " faculty " is not a power in itseK, but it is 
a function mediating a relationship between the organ- 
ism and its environment. It is a mode of reaction that 
cannot work in a vacuum, but that is conditioned for its 
efficiency on knowledge content. Native capacity and 
knowledge are both necessary in order to reason, and one 
cannot observe efficiently in any field without having a 
good apperceptive basis for that field. Memory, imagi- 
nation, and feeling are no less dependent on knowledge. 

But on the side of native capacities some modern 
psychologists have undoubtedly gone too far in denying 
practically all general powers to the mind. They recog- 
nize only particular " connections between particular 
happenings in the sense organs, and other particular 
events in the muscles." This is certainly questionable. 
A person who can reason well in biology, can at least 
usually not only reason well in the other sciences as soon 
as he knows the facts^ but also in history, politics, reli- 
gion, and other fields. There is evidence that the local- 
ization of functions in the brain extends much farther 
than many psychologists now recognize. 

43. Other Fallacies. Thorndike suggests three other 
fallacies, that are responsible for the origin of the doc- 
trine of formal discipline (74: 93). The first is the fal- 
lacy resulting from the neglect of the selective function 
of education, which we considered in chapter ii. It is 
true that the students in the classical course of the high 
school, as a rule, do better in the sciences, history, and 
mathematics than those in the English course, and the 
cause is then erroneously attributed to the effect of the 
study of Latin, rather than to the quality of the students 



THE DOCTRINE OF FORMAL DISCIPLINE 95 

that are willing to tackle the Latin. I have but recently 
heard of a high school principal who said that none of 
his students ever entered the English course if they 
could possibly get along in the classical course. Such a 
prejudice is still widespread. 

The second fallacy arises from neglect of the factor 
of "mere inner growth or maturity." As boys and girls 
mature in passing through the school, their abilities also 
mature and become more efficient, quite apart from the 
effect of their school studies. But it is easy, and " suits 
the vanity of educational theory," to attribute all the 
increase in efficiency to the effect of the school work. 

The third fallacy arises from the tendency to judge 
others by ourselves. Teachers and educational theorists 
are likely to rank considerably above the average in in- 
tellectual capacity, and so could, even when in school, 
readily acquire and apply general ideas, and they con- 
clude that this is the tendency of all. " They mistake 
their own aptitudes at extracting general value from 
special disciplines for a general trait in human nature." 

44. The Literature Classified. The literature discuss- 
ing and criticising the doctrine of formal discipline has 
become so extensive that an adequate review of it can- 
not be attempted here.^ The data brought to bear on 
the question are of various kinds, and may be classified 
under two heads, (1) general discussions, mainly deduc- 
tive, and (2) inductive investigations. The considera- 
tion of the question began with a general argumentative 
discussion based on common experience, analogy, and 
deductions from psychological principles, but has in 

^ For a review of the literature on experimental investigations the 
reader is referred to Thorndike's Educational Psychology, chapter viii, 
and to Bennett's Formal Discipline, which supplement each other. 



96 THE PRINCIPLES OF EDUCATION 

recent years taken the trend of careful inductive investi- 
gation based upon experiment. This has already yielded 
much valuable material. 

45. Deductive Discussions. It is pointed out by psy- 
chologists that the fact of the specialization of mental 
traits is incompatible with formal training. If this doc- 
trine were true, we should expect people to manifest 
at least nearly equal ability in all directions, and cer- 
tainly in those that are somewhat similar. But we know 
from every-day observation that a person may be very 
good in one thing and very poor in another. Zerah 
Colburn was a genius in mathematical calculations, but 
beneath average intelligence in other respects. Artistic 
capacity not infrequently goes with mediocre intellectual 
capacity, and vice versa^ and it is by no means rare to 
find that intellectual capacity in one direction does not 
correlate with a similar capacity in a slightly different 
direction. To quote Thorndike : — 

Careful measurements show that the specialization 
is even greater than ordinary observation leads us to 
suppose. For instance, those individuals who are the 
highest ten out of a hundred, in the power to judge 
differences in length accurately, are by no means the 
highest ten in the ability to judge differences in weights 
accurately. In fact, they are not very much above the 
average. The best ten out of a hundred, in observing 
misspellings in words, are not much better off than the 
worst ten when we test their ability to observe the shape 
of objects. Similarly, quickness and accuracy in think- 
ing of the sums of numbers by no means implies equal 
quickness and accuracy in thinking of the opposite of 
words (76 : 238). 

The modern criticism of the doctrine was begun in 
Germany by the Herbartians, who maintained " that 



THE DOCTRINE OF FORMAL DISCIPLINE 97 

since all mental exercise takes its rise in a definite men- 
tal content, its character is necessarily determined by 
its origin " (14 : 32). They reached some valid con- 
clusions, even though not always based on valid pre- 
mises, and they deserve the credit for having started the 
ball a-rolling toward the present experimental investi- 
gations. 

The first critical discussion of the doctrine published 
in America appears to be one by Dr. Elmer Ellsworth 
Brown, now United States Commissioner of Educa- 
tion. He published a paper, at present less known 
than it deserves, entitled " How is Formal Culture Pos- 
sible ? " in the " Public School Journal " for December, 
1893. The paper is a direct outgrowth of a discussion 
by Tuiskon Ziller, in which Ziller maintains the follow- 
ing theses : — 

1. Thoughts, feelings, and other mental products 
which have been cultivated in one department are ex- 
tended to another and assure to it their aid when both 
departments are brought into so close connection that 
the culture of the first is actually reproduced at those 
points and in those members where the connection is 
established ; and not until then is such aid assured. 

2. But a second condition must have preceded that 
already mentioned, if formal culture is to be certainly 
attained ; the material in question must have been 
wrought out ideally. 

3. But even when this logical elaboration of material 
is secured in one department, and likewise in the con- 
nection of the first department with the second, in one 
direction as well as in the opposite, the formal effect is 
secured, thirdly, only on the condition that the material 
on which it is to be realized is sufficiently well known 
in its full extent. 



98 THE PRINCIPLES OF EDUCATION 

These conclusions are accepted by Dr. Brown so far 
as they go, but he does not think that they go far 
enough. They pertain only to the intellect, and leave 
out the will and the feelings. Will, or the tendency to 
act, he takes to be as fundamental as the intellect, or 
the tendency to know, and he continues : — 

Now, if rudimentary knowledge and rudimentary 
will are both fundamental facts of mental action, and 
the one the necessary complement of the other, it would 
seem as if we might look for formal culture along the 
line of will as well as along the line of knowledge. Will 
finds its bearing on the purely intellectual processes in 
the form of voluntary attention. Another result, then, 
of thorough instruction in any one field of knowledge, 
which may be carried over into other fields and find 
fruitful application there, is increased power of volun- 
tary attention. 

Another element of formal culture may be added to 
Ziller's list ; though in its last analysis it may not be 
essentially different from that already presented. Sound 
education in any one department of knowledge leads to 
the formation of methodical habits, or, perhaps better, 
the habit of method. 

Among such habits are mentioned observation, asso- 
ciation, induction, and deduction. This is the element 
that Thorndike has called " identity of procedure." 

On the side of the feelings Dr. Brown says : — 

There are results in feeling that are carried over 
readily from one sphere to another, no matter how re- 
mote. Note how a general tone of self-confidence, once 
established in the mind of an otherwise diffident child, 
braces up every form of mental activity thereafter. 
There are moral qualities that, once secured, react on 
intellectual processes, and acknowledge no such bounds 



THE DOCTRINE OF FORMAL DISCIPLINE 99 

as Ziller imposes. The ardent love of truth, and the 
sense of intellectual responsibility that may be aroused 
through instruction, — what mental activity do they 
fail to touch with vivifying power ? 

To this aspect of the problem Bagley and others have 
applied the term " ideals." 

Although the paper by Dr. Brown contains apparently 
the first criticism of the doctrine of formal discipline 
to be published in America, it does not take first rank 
in attracting the attention of educators to such criti- 
cism. This rank belongs to a paper by Hinsdale, enti- 
tled " The Dogma of Formal Discipline," which was the 
next to appear. This paper was read before the meet- 
ing of the National Education Association at Asbury 
Park, New Jersey, in 1894, and appears in the " Pro- 
ceedings " for that year. It attracted wide attention 
immediately, and the doctrine it criticised has been 
under discussion and investigation ever since. 

Like Dr. Brown, Hinsdale takes his start from the 
Herbartians, and begins with a quotation from Rein. 
After stating the doctrine, he takes up the various tenets 
of the disciplinarians, compares mental with physical 
activities in which training is obviously only partly trans- 
ferred, and by means of an appeal to common experi- 
ence, he defends the thesis that the same holds true in 
the mental sphere. The influence of a study may spread 
or be transferred (1) by " energizing " the mind, i. e., 
by exerting a tonic effect on the mind through furnish- 
ing brain exercise, and (2) by having elements in com- 
mon with other studies or activities. Says Hinsdale : — 

The power or skill engendered by driving nails can 
all be used in driving nails, but only partly in shoving 



100 THE PRINCIPLES OF EDUCATION 

a plane. . . . The law appears to be this : in so far as 
the second exertion involves the same muscles and 
nerves as the first one, and, particularly, in so far as it 
calls for the same coordination of muscles and nerves, 
the power created by the first exertion will be available. 
In other words, the result is determined by the con- 
gruity or the incongruity of the two efforts. 

The fact that " there is no such thing as activity in 
vacuo " is clearly recognized by Hinsdale, and he points 
out that perception, memory, reason, and other mental 
powers are conditioned on knowledge content for their 
activity. He also recognizes that activity in one line 
need not further activity in other lines, but that it may 
injure it. In support of this point he cites, among other 
things, the famous confession of Darwin in regard to 
the atrophy of his powers of aesthetic appreciation. In 
early life Darwin was fond of poetry and music, but 
when he tried to come back to these things after years 
of incessant work in science, he found that he had lost 
aU. taste for them. His mind had become " a kind of 
machine for grinding general laws out of large collec- 
tions of facts." 

Hinsdale's conclusions, which are not entirely lucid 
without reading the paper, are as follows : — 

1. The power generated by any kind of mental 
activity must be studied under two aspects, one special 
and one general. 

2. The degree to which such power is general de- 
pends upon the extent to which it energizes the mind, 
and particularly the extent to which it overflows into 
congruent channels. 

3. Such power is far more special than general ; it 
is only in a limited sense that we can be said to have a 



THE DOCTRINE OF FORMAL DISCIPLINE 101 

store of mobilized power. In a sense men have percep- 
tions, memories, and imaginations, rather than percep- 
tion, memory, and imagination. 

4. While liberal study and specialization look to 
somewhat different ends, they are, in fact, only parts, 
and necessary parts, of the same thing. 

5. No one kind of mental exercise — no few kinds — 
can develop the whole mind. That end can be gained 
only through many and varied activities. 

6. No study — no single group of studies — contains 
within itself the possibilities of a whole education. The 
balance of development, which we should call a liberal 
education, can be gained only through a measurably 
expanded curriculum. 

Since this paper by Hinsdale, the discussion has been i 
extensively and progressively continued by O'Shea, 
Thorndike, Bagley, Home, Bennett, and others. The 
conclusions reached are not greatly at variance with one 
another, and are not so sweeping as those quoted aboy^^ 
from Ziller. rThe transfer of training from one function I 
to another is not entirely denied, but is demonstrated [ 
to exist, and the questions that remain are the amount I . 
of transfer in the various departments of mental activ- j 
ity, and the manner in which the transfer is effected, j I 

46. Inductive Investigations. These questions -evi^ 
dently cannot be satisfactorily answered by argument 
and appeal to common experience, but must be sub- 
mitted to experiment. Apparently the first experiment 
undertaken in this country that bears directly on this 
topic was one by William James (39 : 667). This 
experiment antedates the paper by Dr, Brown, and was 
really undertaken to test the improvability of native 
retentiveness. James tried to discover whether a certain 
amount of daily training in learning one kind of poetry 



102 THE PRINCIPLES OF EDUCATION 

by heart would shorten the time it takes to learn an en- 
tirely different kind of poetry. As subjects he used him- 
self and four of his students, and he measured the time 
it took to memorize one kind of poetry before and after 
a fixed amount of training with a different kind. The 
experiment was not prosecuted with much scientific pre- 
cision and uniformity, and therefore the results are not 
entirely trustworthy, yn no case was any significant 
improvement in memorizing manifest, and James thinks 
that the results support the conclusion that " all improve- 
ment in memory consists ... in the improvement of 
one's habitual methods of recording facts."} 

The scientific investigation of this problem was 
begun in earnest by Thorndike and Woodworth.* They 
"made a great variety of experiments upon the result 
of training in estimating areas, lengths, and weights of 
certain shape and size, upon the ability to estimate 
areas, lengths, and weights similar in shape but differ- 
ent in size, different in shape but similar in size, dif- 
ferent in both shape and size. A still more extensive 
series of experiments measured the influence of train- 
ing in various forms of observation or perception upon 
slightly different forms." 

They conclude as follows : — 

Improvement in any single mental function need 
not improve the ability in functions commonly called 
by the same name. It may injure it. 

Improvement in any single mental function rarely 
brings about equal improvement in any other function, 
no matter how similar, for the working of every mental 
function-group is conditioned by the nature of the data 
in each particular case. 

1 Psychological Beview, vol. viii. Summarized in Thorndike's Educa- 
tional Psychology, pp. 90-92. 



THE DOCTRINE OF FORMAL DISCIPLINE 103 

The very slight amount of variation in the nature of 
the data necessary to affect the efficiency of a function- 
group makes it fair to infer that no change in the data, 
however slight, is without effect on the function. The 
loss in the efficiency of a function trained with certain 
data, as we pass to data more and more unlike the 
first, makes it fair to infer that there is always a point 
where the loss is complete, a point beyond which the 
influence of the training has not extended. The rapid- 
ity of this loss, that is, its amount in the case of data 
very similar to the data on which the function was 
trained, makes it fair to infer that this point is nearer 
than has been supposed. 

The general consideration of the cases of retention 
or loss of practice effect seems to make it likely that 
spread of practice occurs only where identical elements 
are concerned in the influencing and influenced func- 
tion. 

We cannot attempt to review all the other experiments 
that have been performed, but we shall consider the 
conclusions of a few of them in relation to the depart- 
ments of mental activity which they touch. 

Sense-discrimination. In a monograph on " Formal 
Discipline," Bennett reports three experiments bearing 
on this topic. The first concerns " the improvement 
brought about in the discrimination of length by the 
eye as a result of practice in discriminating length by 
the knowledge gained from arm movements. There 
were two subjects, S. and D." 

\" The result of the experiment was negative. One 
subject showed improvement in the tests after training ; 
and the other was, to an equal degree, inferior." 

Bennett accounts for this in part by the fact that 
jDoth subjects were skilled experimental psychologists, 



104 THE PRINaPLES OF EDUCATION 

" who, as students and teachers, had drilled themselves 
into many forms of movement." 

The next " series of experiments shows the result 
of special practice in discriminating different satura- 
tions of blue upon other sense powers in the case of 16 
children. . . . The preliminary and final tests were 
in discriminating different mixtures (1) of red and 
white, (2) of yellow and green, (3) of orange and black. 
There was also a preliminary test in discriminating 
differences in pitch. Finally the children were tested in 
discrimination of length, in marking A's, and in accu- 
racy of movement." 

The training in discriminating the blues had a marked 
effect on improving the power to discriminate the other 
colors, the improvement being nearly as great as for 
the blues themselves, and there was also a noticeable 
improvement in the discrimination of pitch. The results 
in the other tests are not reported. 

The third experiment consisted in discriminating 
lengths of line from a norm. The norm was 10 cm. in 
length, and the other lines varied from it by 1-10 mm. 
The preliminary and final tests were divided by two 
months of practice, four times a week, in duplicating 
the norm with a pencil. " There was no transfer of 
training effects, from motor practice to visual prac- 
tice, but rather a loss." 

Bennett is not satisfied that the experiment was a good 
one. There were but two subjects, and both had had 
much* experience with this kind of work in the psycho- 
logical laboratory. 

Coover and Angell (2 : 328 f.) report two experi- 
ments, one of which is on sense-discrimination : — 



THE DOCTRINE OF FORMAL DISCIPLINE 105 

Four reagents were trained in discrimination of in- 
tensities of sound for seventeen days during an inter- 
val of fifty-seven days. Each reagent made forty judg- 
ments in each day's sitting. 

Before and after training the reagents were tested 
in the discrimination of shades of gray, each test con- 
sisting of three series, each containing thirty-five judg- 
ments, delivered on three separate days. 

Our conclusion from the experiment ... is that 
efficiency of sensible discrimination acquired by train- 
ing with sound stimuli has been transferred to the effi- 
ciency of discriminating brightness stimuli, and that the 
factors in this transfer are due in great part to habitu- 
ation and to a more economic adaptation of attention, 
i, e., are general rather than special in character. 

It should be said in passing that according to the 
data submitted, the amount of transfer was so small as 
to be left in doubt. 

Some of Thorndike and Woodworth's experiments 
also bear on sense-discrimination, and while some show 
a transfer of practice, others do not. 

Memory, A number of experiments have been per- 
formed on the transfer of practice in memorizing from 
one kind of material to another. The experiment cited 
above from James is one. Another, made in the same 
manner, but with more varied material and only two 
subjects, is reported by Bennett (pp. 45-46). In this 
experiment considerable improvement in memorizing 
was manifest after the practice series. 

Ebert and Meuman carried on an experiment by the 
" test method," in which they measured the increased 
efficiency of the memories for letters, numbers, non- 
sense syllables, words (vernacular), Italian words, 



\i 






^ 



106 THE PRINCIPLES OF EDUCATION 

poetry, and prose. Between the tests the subjects were 
trained on meaningless syllables. 

The experimenters conclude that " it may not be 
denied, when the facts are taken into consideration, that 
there is a general memory training, also that it is out 
of the question to increase through practice any special 
memory isolated from the totality of memory func- 
tion." 1 

Winch reports an experiment made on some school- 
children in Great Britain. " Tests were made by learn- 
ing selections from an historical reader ; the training 
consisted in committing poetry and selections from a 
geographical reader." The ability of the children who 
had taken the test was compared with some who had 
not taken it. " It was found that the children who 
had had the special practice averaged nearly ten per 
cent better than those without training." ^ 

Tracker reports an experimental investigation on the 
transference of training in memory in the " University 
of Iowa Studies in Psychology " for June, 1908. The 
experiments were carried on by the "test method." 
Eight persons took both the test and the practice series, 
while four others took the test series only. The train- 
ing series consisted in practice in memory for the order 
of four tones. The test series consisted of eight experi- 
ments, as follows : Memory (1) for poetry, (2) for the 
order of four shades of gray, (3) for the order of nine 
tones, (4) for the order of nine shades of gray, (5) for 
four tones, (6) for the order of nine geometrical figures, 

^ From review by Bennett, loc. cit., 33, 34. Original in Archiv fur 
die gesamte Psychologie, iv. B., 1904. 

2 From review by Pillsbury, Educationg,l Review, xzxvi, 22. Original 
in British Journal of Psychology, xi, 284? 



THE DOCTRINE OF FORMAL DISCIPLINE 107 

(7) for the order of nine numbers, and (8) for the 
extent of arm movement. The results obtained are as 
follows : — 

For the four grays there was a difference between 
the results for the trained and the untrained of 32 per 
cent, or a gain nine times greater in the trained than 
in the untrained; for the nine tones, a difference of 
10 per cent, or a gain twice as great for the trained 
as for the untrained ; for the nine grays a difference 
of 9 per cent, or a gain twice as great ; for the four 
tones a difference of 12 per cent ; for geometrical fig- 
ures a difference of 5 per cent ; for the nine numbers 
a gain of 4 per cent ; for the movement a difference 
of 1 per cent ; ^ and for poetry a difference of 5 per 
cent. 

The difference of the gain of the trained over the 
untrained in the tests intentionally similar to the train- 
ing series is 16 per cent [or 3.7 times as great]. The 
corresponding difference between the trained and the 
untrained for tests intentionally dissimilar is 3 per cent 
[or twice as great]. 

Fracker compares his results with those of Thorndike 
and Woodworth, quoted on page 102, and finds them 
corroborative with but one exception. The exception is 
that " improvement in many cases is absolutely greater 
in amount in the tests than in the training," which 
is contrary to the findings of Thorndike and Wood- 
worth. No satisfactory explanation is offered for this 
anomaly. 

Habits and Ideals. The only experiment so far re- \ 
ported on the transfer of habits is one carried out under ( 

^ This figure is given by Fracker as —1 per cent, but this appears 
to be a clerical en'or. The word " difference " should read "gain" 
throughouto 



108 THE PRINCIPLES OF EDUCATION 

the direction of Mrs. C. R. Squire in the public schools 
at Dillon, Montana, the results of which Bagley sum- 
marizes as follows : — 

At the Montana State Normal College careful experi- 
ments were undertaken to determine whether the habit 
of producing neat papers in arithmetic will function in 
reference to neat written work in other studies ; the 
tests were confined to the intermediate grades. The re- 
sults are almost startling in their failure to show the 
slightest improvement in language and spelling papers, 
although the improvement in the arithmetic papers was 
noticeable from the very first (4 : 208). 

Bagley is especially interested in this experiment 
because of its bearing on the question of " generalized 
habits." Such habits he discredits entirely, calling them 
a psychological absurdity. Every habit is specific, func- 
tioning marginally or subconsciously, and so cannot be 
generalized because of its intrinsic nature. What people 
have been calling " habits " of industry, obedience, neat- 
ness, etc., Bagley maintains are really " ideals." These 
differ from habits in functioning focally on the plane of 
judgment instead of marginally and reflexly. Now when 
a function like neatness is made fully conscious, i. e., 
when the ideal instead of the habit is established. Bag- 
ley thinks it can then " be generalized to any extent that 
one pleases " (4 : 215). 

On this point, however, Bagley submits no experi- 
mental evidence, arguing only on the basis of common 
experience and deductive inference. For the purpose of 
investigating it, the writer had an experiment carried 
out according to the following directions, which were 
faithfuUy observed (25 : 364 f.). 

Problem : Does the ideal of neatness brought out in 



THE DOCTRINE OF FORMAL DISCIPLINE 109 

connection with, and applied in, one school subject func- 
tion in other school subjects f 

1. In the written work of one school subject pay all 
the attention you can both to the habit and the ideal of 
neatness. Demand neat papers, having them rewritten 
when necessary. 

2. Talk frequently with the class (not <o) on the 
importance of neatness in dress, business, the home, 
hospitals, etc., connecting it as far as you can with the 
subject under experiment. Guard against overdoses. 

3. Do not bring up the subject of neatness in connec- 
tion with the other studies of the school. If the pupils 
refer to these studies, quietly substitute something else. 
Talk of neatness only in that class, not to the school in 
general. 

4. CoUect one or more papers a week in three or 
four subjects, — language (grammar), arithmetic, geo- 
graphy, history, — one of which is the basis of the 
experiment. Have name and date on each paper. 

5. CoUect at least three papers in each subject before 
you bring up the matter of neatness. 

6. Do not let the class know that an experiment is 
being conducted. Do not alter the work of the school 
in other respects. If uniform exercise papers are not 
required now, do not make the requirement. 

7. Keep a brief record each day of what was said on 
neatness, as : March 28. We talked of the importance 
of neatness in . 

8. Make specific note of any other changes in neat- 
ness you notice in your pupils, in dress, their desks, etc. 

9. Carry on the experiment for eight weeks. 

Papers were collected in three different schools, all of 
the seventh grade. The collections were made in the 
second half of the year, after some degree of stability in 



no THE PRINCIPLES OF EDUCATION 

the written work had been attained. The papers were 
graded on the scale of 100, independently by three dif- 
ferent persons. Each grader assigned three grades to 
each set of papers, — one to those collected before neat- 
ness was emphasized, one to those near the middle of the 
set, and one to those near the end. The grades assigned 
at each point were then averaged. 

The returns from the different schools vary somewhat 
among themselves, but there seems to be no doubt that 
neatness made conscious as an ideal or aim in connection 
with one school subject does function in other subjects. 
In schools I and III the most marked improvement 
occurred in geography and in arithmetic, the subjects 
in which neatness was respectively emphasized, but there 
was unquestionable improvement also in the other sub- 
jects. In school I the average grades in geography 
showed an improvement of 5 points, and those in arith- 
metic and grammar respectively 4 and 3.4 points ; while 
in school III arithmetic improved 4.6 points, and geo- 
graphy and history respectively 2.9 and 2 points. The 
number of pupils showing improvement was about the 
same in all the subjects. In school II the improvement 
was in no case very marked, but it is significant that 
the averages show in no case any decline. If neatness 
were not mentioned at all for two months, it is more than 
probable that there would be some deterioration. Hence, 
if the other subjects had merely held their own, some 
credit could, no doubt, have been fairly attributed to 
the leavening influence of the ideal. 

Other changes in the neatness of the pupils are hard 
for the teacher accurately to observe, but one teacher 
reports three cases of apparently genuine improvement 
in the care of desks and in personal appearance. 



THE DOCTRINE OF FORMAL DlSaPLINE 111 

Many other experiments are reported that touch more 
or less directly on the problem of the transfer of train- 
ing. These bear on observation, attention, reaction time, 
cross-education, and general intelligence, and they all 
quite consistently support the conclusion that one mental 
function does influence others. The transfer apparently 
varies directly with the closeness with which the func- 
tions compared are related, and it declines rapidly 
when this relation decreases. The functions of memoriz- 
ing words and nonsense syllables are much alike, and 
the transfer of practice from one to the other is marked, 
but there is little transfer between distinguishing colors 
and recognizing pitch. 

Interference of Training. All the facts brought out 
so far argue not for an independence and discreteness of 
mental functions, but for an interdependence and inter- 
relation of such functions. This being true, we should 
expect not only that one function will assist another 
somewhat related function, but that under different con- 
ditions the first would interfere with the second. This 
is actually found to be the case. Instead of the transfer 
of practice being positive, it may be negative. One 
habit or activity that has become established may inter- 
fere with, rather than assist in, the practice or estab- 
lishment of another habit or activity. The experience 
of Darwin losing his taste for art and poetry is a case in 
point. It is proverbial that the specialist in any field 
has eyes and ears only for his specialty. He could no 
doubt see and hear other things, but his specialty inter- 
feres. Among teachers it is a common observation that it 
is worse for a student to have been taught wrong than not 
to have been taught at all. A student that has learned to 
write or sing in bad form experiences great difficulty in 



112 THE PRINCIPLES OF EDUCATION 

learning to do these acts in good form. He must not 
only learn, but also break a habit. A number of experi- 
ments touching this topic have been reported, and these 
fully bear out our common experience.^ A transfer of 
this kind, while not supporting the original conception 
of formal discipline, is a transferred influence no less 
than a positive one. 

47. Channels of Transfer. The channels through 
which improvement is carried from one mental function 
to another may apparently all be grouped together under 
the head of " identical elements." ^ This is the means 
mentioned by ZiUer ; and Hinsdale, O'Shea, Thorndike, 
and others also have dwelt upon it. As a means of 
transfer this is easily comprehensible and removes all 
mystery from the process. It is, however, frequently 
difficult to tell when two processes are mentally identical 
and when they are not. An apparent resemblance or 
divergence may prove misleading when subjected to test. 

Tracker distinguishes between " transference " and 
" spread of training." He says : " We may mean by 
transference the ability to use in one act the elements 
used in another act. If we mean by transference that 
the training one receives in using a number of elements 
is transferred to another act in which these elements do 
not occur, then the phrase ' spread of training ' would 
describe our meaning more accurately. In the sense of 
' spread of training ' we can hardly say that there is 
'transference.' A technical meaning of transference is 
answered only by the first definition." ^ Both means of 

1 Bergstrom, American Journal of Psychology, vi, 433. Judd, Edu- 
cational Review, xxxvi, 28. See also Henderson, Education, xxix, 601. 

2 The phrase " similar elements " would on the whole be better. 
^ University of Iowa Studies in Psychology, June, 1908, p. 85. 



THE DOCTRINE OF FORMAL DISCIPLINE 113 

improvement, Fracker finds, are, on the subjective side, 
mediated by systems of imagery. 

Identical elements have been classified farther by 
Thorndike (76 : 243) under the sub-classes of ^' identity 
of substa nce" and "identity of procedure." Subjects 
that have a part of their substance or contentln common 
can scarcely help being mutually beneficial. A thorough 
training in mathematics will make physics easier be- 
cause physics is largely mathematics ; and the person who 
knows Latin and German will have many of the diffi- 
culties in learning Esperanto removed because he al- 
ready has the pronunciation and most of the root-words. 
Still, we must always be cautious about expecting too 
much assistance in this way, for different subjects are 
more different than alike, and the transfer never seems 
to take place at par. 

In a similar manner the student who has learned the 
method of procedure in studying one subject, who has 
gained the concept of method, will be benefited in study- 
ing another where a similar method is used. The student 
of languages in time acquires a mode of attack that he 
uses in all language-study, and the person who has had 
a laboratory course in physics can later apply many of 
the methods he has learned in the laboratory work in 
chemistry, psychology, and other sciences. This is the 
element to which Coover and Angell attribute the trans- 
fer of practice in their experiments; and most, if not 
all, of the transfer in the memory experiments may be 
explained by means of it. 

According to Thorndike, these two species of identical 
elements embrace all the cases. Everything that does not 
come under identity of substance, and whose influence 
can possibly spread, is classed under identity of proced- ^ 



114 THE PRINCIPLES OF EDUCATION 

lire. But this does not seem quite adequate. Where, 
for example, should such functions as " obedience " and 
" self-reliance" be placed ? Thorndike mentions these as 
identical elements that function in different situations, 
but he does not classify them further. Strictly speaking, 
however, these elements come neither under the head 
of identity of substance, which has objective reference 
pure and simple, nor under the head of identity of pro- 
cedure, or method (the preferable term), which has 
reference to rules for manipulating the objective. In so 
far as they are not merely habitual or instinctive, they 
exist in the mind as standards or ideals that serve as 
models or aims for activity. Their reference is prima- 
rily subjective, although in the nature of the case they 
can be realized only in the concrete. They function as 
identical elements in different situations, it is true, but 
they do not logically fall into either of the sub-classes 
mentioned. What we need is a third sub-class, and the 
writer would suggest for it the name of " identity of 
aim." This is parallel in phraseology with the others 
and seems to cover the point. 

The experiment on the ideal of neatness described 
above falls into this class, and so does apparently the 
whole question of "generalized habits." This has been 
a disturbing factor in the problem of formal discipline 
from the beginning. According to psychological analy- 
sis and usage, habits are always specific, — they cannot 
well be anything else, — but according to common ob- 
servation, certain so-called habits appear unquestionably 
to be generalized. Such habits are " industry," " perse- 
verance," "self-reliance," and the like. 

The cause of the difficulty here is no doubt largely a 
verbal one. If instead of the word " habits " we should 



THE DOCTRINE OF FORMAL DISCIPLINE 115 

use the word " ideals," mucli of the difficulty would dis- 
appear. Where such a function as perseverance is gen- 
eralized, it is done so partly at least through conscious 
control, which places it in the second category rather 
than the first. 

Another factor which enters here, and which appears 
to be large in many instances, is that of native capacity. 
A person with a capacity for industry, perseverance, or 
self-reliance is likely to manifest that capacity in what- 
ever he undertakes. If now this capacity be especially 
awakened in a particular study, and it then naturally 
functions elsewhere, it is wrongly inferred that it has 
become a generalized habit. That people differ in their 
native capacity in these respects is evident to all, and 
is unquestioned by psychologists. 

But there is no doubt still a third factor that enters ^ 
here. Habit and judgment cannot be sharply divided, 
but they hold a relation to each other like that of two ^ 
triangles placed so as to form a rectangle. They may^r 
both be present in the same reaction, but as one incre^^T 
the other decreases. Habit is thus not necessarily con- 
fined to situations that are identical in all respects, 
but it may operate in response to similar elements in 
otherwise different situations. Some conscious guidance 
is probably used in selecting the similar element, but 
even this may be reduced to a minimum. Hence a func- 
tion like perseverance may actually be more on the plane 
of habit than on the plane of judgment, even when 
acquired. This makes classification difficult, if not 
impossible, and so is no doubt at the bottom of some 
of the confusion that exists. 

48. Conclusion and Applications. If we have ana- 
lyzed the doctrine of formal discipline correctly, it is evi- 



116 THE PRINCIPLES OF EDUCATION 

dent that its extreme advocates and its extreme oppo- 
nents are both wrong. Knowledge and training are not 
merely specific in their application, but they also have 
a general value. This value arises through the factor of 
identical elements, of which there are at least three 
types, ^ and it declines rapidly as the similarity of the 
material of instruction or training decreases. Because 
of this rapid decline we can conclude that this doctrine 
is valueless as a criterion for the selecttmrof" subject^ 
matter. "To defend or retain a subject on thel)asis of its 
disciplinary effect is to take a stand on an extremely 
slender support. Only intrinsic values serve as valid 
bases for such retention and defense. But after a sub- 
ject has once been admitted on this basis, the formal 
values that exist should be given their full emphasis. 
This means no more than to say that the subjects should 
be taught as well as we know how to teach them. No 
' subject has a supreme or pecul iar value in developing 
methods of procedure or ideals that are of universal 
applicatio n, b ut all subjects may be so taught as to 
"yield their quota in these respects ; and it is to be es- 
pecially emphasized that we get little of these formal 
values without aiming definitely for them. The general 
relations of aim, method, and content must be brought 
definitely and attractively to consciousness, and applied 
to the activities at hand. Only in this way can we make 
sure that these values will to a certain extent be general- 
ized ; and they will in addition vitalize our teaching. In 
teaching we can expect to reap no more than we sow, 
for the law of compensation operates in the realm of 
mind no less than elsewhere. Results in mental training 
follow surely only upon the expenditure of definite and 

1 See chapter ix. 



THE DOCTRINE OF FORMAL DISCIPLINE 117 

intelligent effort, but with this they seem everywhere 
commensurate. 

EXERCISES 

1. Does the theory of identical elements apply to interfer- 
ence of training ? 

2. Do the conclusions of the text in regard to formal dis- 
cipline apply to the doctrine of unf oldment ? 

3. Can you mention a desirable subject of study that must 
be defended primarily on its disciplinary value ? 

4. Give three instances of transfer through identity of 
substance; through identity of method; through identity 
of aim. 

5. Is Delabarre right when he says : " The formula of 
identical elements is true, but of no real practical use " ? In 
answering, consider its rationalizing value. 

6. Criticise : " Our first reason for the study of science 
rests on the training in observation for which it furnishes the 
opportunity." 

" The second reason for the study of science is that it trains 
the pupil in the organization of his observatibns by compari- 
son and induction" (69 : 8, 9). 

7. Criticise : " Milo, the athlete, as Quintilian affirms, by 
lifting a calf day after day, was, in the end, able to lift an ox. 
Mind and muscle agree in this fact that, by being taxed, they 
acquire new power and skill, and this is what we mean by 
discipline" (62: 149). 

8. Criticise : In speaking of logic John Stuart Mill says : 
" I know of nothing in my education to which I think myself 
more indebted for whatever capacity of thinking I have at- 
tained. ... I am persuaded that nothing in modern educa- 
tion tends so much when properly used to form exact think- 
ers, who attach a precise meaning to words and propositions 
and are not imposed on by vague, loose, or ambiguous terms." 

9. Is Bacon more right than wrong, or vice versa ? " His- 
tories make men wise, poets witty ; the mathematics, subtile ; 



118 THE PRINCIPLES OF EDUCATION 

natural philosophy, deep ; moral, grave ; logic and rhetoric, 
able to contend. Studies terminate in manners. Nay, there is 
no stond or impediment in the wit but may be wrought out 
by fit studies, like as diseases of the body may have appropri- 
ate exercises. ... So every defect of the mind may have a 
special receipt." 

10. Do you approve of the following ? Why, or why not ? 
" That a student has a marked predilection for a certain study 
is proof that his mind is a facile instrument in one main line 
of activity, and may be a valid reason why he should be ex- 
cused from this intellectual pursuit ; while marked unsuccess 
in another study indicates a dormant or undeveloped faculty, 
and may be a valid reason why the study should be maintained, 
even under painful pressure " (62 : 152). 

COLLATERAL BEADING 

Angell, Pillsbury, Judd, Educational Review, June, 1908. 
Bagley, Educative Process, 203-217. 
Delabarre, Henderson, Horne, Education, May, 1909. 
Heck, Mental Discipline and Educational Values. 
Horne, Psychological Principles of Education, 66-79. 
O'Shea, Education as Adjustment, 246-283. 
Thorndike, Principles of Teaching, 235-256. 

(For extended bibliographies, see "Education," xxix, 614, 
and Bennett, " Formal Discipline.") 






CHAPTER VII 

THE ELEMENTAL EDUCATIONAL VALUES 

(A) Instrumental Values 

49. Need of Further Analysis. Our aim so far has 
been to set forth the end of education only in a general 
way. We have defined education as the process of ad- 
justing the individual to the conditions of modern human 
life, this life to be understood both in its subjective and 
objective aspects ; and we have pointed out that adjust- 
ment meant on the one hand added appreciation of, 
increased harmony with, and intelligent control over, 
one's environment, and on the other the power of con- 
tinued growth and the ability to make efficient and 
proper use of one's own capacities. This implies in a 
general way that only such studies and exercises should 
be taken into the school as distinctly further the adjust- 
ment process, but we manifestly need more definite 
criteria for the evaluation and selection of studies than 
our analysis has thus far revealed. We need to know 
what the educational values are in their lowest terms, 
and how these values are met by the studies and exer- 
cises of the school. Man's life is varied and complex, 
and one cannot expect that every study will put man in 
touch with it equally in all directions. A single study 
has but a few conspicuous values, — frequently but one 
that leads, with several that are subordinate. The lead- 
ing values are furthermore in a degree characteristic for 



120 THE PRINCIPLES OF EDUCATION 

each study, so that we get as many values as we have 
studies. But relationships between the values of studies 
do exist, and the problem that now faces us is to resolve 
these values into a few logically exclusive classes. 
In doing this it should not be expected that absolutely 
distinct dividing lines will be jlrawn, for such lines 
probably nowhere exist. The various values shade into 
one another like the different colors of the rainbow, 
but the different types of values may nevertheless be 
distinctly identified. 

50. Preparatory and Introductory Values. In rela- 
tion to other subjects of study, practically every sub- 
ject may be regarded as having a preparatory value. 
Reading, writing, and number open the gateway to^all 
the studies that follow. Arithmetic prepares for alge- 
bra, geography for history, and history for literature. 
Physics and astronomy cannot be intensively pursued 
without a good deal of mathematics ; while the biologi- 
cal sciences presuppose physics and chemistry, and are 
also beginning more and more to presuppose mathe- 
matics. In chapter i we saw that the various profes- 
sional studies for teaching are not only progressively 
dependent on one another, but are also dependent on 
psychology, biology, and other academic studies. One 
value, then, that a study may have, is the pr eparaton 

The characteristic feature of a preparafory value is 
that the substance of one study is used as such in the 
pursuit of another study. Mathematics is used as math- 
ematics in physics, and chemistry as chemistry in phy^ 
siology. But there is another value that is sometimes 
identified with the preparatory that does not conform to 
this criterion. It may be illustrated by physical geo- 
graphy in the high school, which is said to be prepara- 



THE ELEMENTAL EDUCATIONAL VALUES 121 

tory to the study of the sciences. It is not said, however, 
that physical geography necessarily yields geographical 
facts and principles that are needed in the pursuit of 
the sciences, but rather that a little of botany, zoology, 
physics, chemistry, and astronomy is actually studied 
in geography. What physical geography does here is 
to introduce the study of a number of the sciences, and 
for that reason its value in relation to the sciences 
should be called introductory instead of preparatory. 

Some studies occasionally have the introductory 
value, but it is characteristic of only a few. Physical 
geography forms a good example, but the value is a 
subordinate one and is apparently seldom realized. In 
the field of literature this value is perhaps more 
often used than elsewhere, and this should no doubt be 
done even more than it now is. The tales of King Ar- 
thur are sometimes read in prose form for the avowed 
purpose of leading up to the study of the " Idylls of the 
King " by Tennyson, and Lamb's " Tales from Shake- 
speare " are in some places similarly used as an introduc- 
tion to Shakespeare's plays. In history a brief account 
of a period or epoch may be used to lay the basis for a 
more exhaustive study later, especially in private read- 
ing. College courses in biology, psychology, economics, 
etc., are frequently called " introductory " because of 
this very feature. Such courses take it as one of their 
aims to give a student a broad and general acquaintance 
with the entire subject, for the purpose, among others, 
of leading up to narrower and more intensive study 
later. It is to be expressly borne in mind, however, that 
other values are not excluded by this one. An intro- 
ductory course may be taken entirely irrespective of its 
introductory value. 



122 THE PRINCIPLES OF EDUCATION 

The preparatory and introductory values both rise 
out of the psychological principle of apperception. Ex- 
perience can be interpreted only in the light of previ- 
ous experience ; and when certain data depend for 
their interpretation and comprehension on other data, 
these data should be given priority in the school. This 
is the preparatory relation. It is also true that a per- 
son cannot grasp and retain a host of details unless he 
knows in a schematic way what they are all about ; unless 
he has an outline knowledge of the field so that he can 
properly assimilate or pigeon-hole the details. This is 
the introductory relation. 

These two values apply mainly to the schoolroom, and 
not to life in general. They must be understood as re- 
ferring to the interrelations of studies themselves, and 
not to the application of studies to vocational and avo- 
cational problems. To say, for example, that a study 
is preparatory because it prepares for life, would be to 
forestall our attempt at classification, because it would 
land us just where we started. In this sense the word 
" preparatory " would be just as broad in meaning as 
the word "adjustment." 

51. The Practical Value. The values of studies that 
we are most interested in as educators rather than as 
teachers are those that pertain primarily to life outside 
the school, and it is to these that we now turn. One of 
these values is the practical. This word we must again 
use in a narrow, technical sense, for in a broad way 
everything is practical. It must be used as having re- 
ference to the securing of protection^ food^ clothing^ 
shelter^ communication^ and locomotion. It corresponds 
roughly to Spencer's categories of direct and indirect 
self-preservation and to Bagley's utilitarian value. 



THE ELEMENTAL EDUCATIONAL VALUES 123 

The practical value may be conveniently subdivided 
into two groups — the individually practical and the 
socially practical. In the former the individual receives 
protection and material gain directly through the appli- 
cation of knowledge that he makes for himself ; while 
in the latter the individual gains these things indirectly 
through public, semi-public, and professional initiative. 
The first may be illustrated by a person using his 
knowledge of bacteria in preserving his own health, 
and the second by the individual gaining the benefit of 
this knowledge through the services of a physician or 
through municipal sanitary undertakings. 

The first factor, protection, is taken care of di- 
rectly, largely by instinct and by the knowledge and 
skill acquired before school-life begins and outside of 
school-hours. The capacities and sensations of fear, 
hunger, thirst, fatigue, etc., which do not need to be 
implanted, although they need to be guided, and the 
skill spontaneously acquired on the playground, — skill 
in running, striking, dodging, balancing, — go far in 
protecting the body from harm and destruction through- 
out life. But knowledge may also lend its quota of 
assistance in this respect. Bacteriology, physiology, 
and hygiene further the care of the body by revealing 
certain needs and dangers of which otherwise we would 
not be aware ; and a scientific knowledge of electricity 
may keep one from touching a dangerous live wire. 
Other instances will no doubt readily occur to the 
reader. 

Indirect protection is also in a measure gained 
instinctively when, for example, parents and others 
protect us from impending danger in response to the 
altruistic impulse ; but in the main this gain comes from 



124 THE PRINCIPLES OF EDUCATION 

the application of knowledge. It comes to the individ- 
ual through the callings and enterprises that are based 
upon school acquirements. The knowledge and training 
possessed by the lawyer, the physician, the engineer, and 
the chemist are at the disposal of every man, woman, 
and child. The benefit comes to them whenever they 
ask for and receive professional services that are of a 
protective nature, as well as through such public regu- 
lations as those pertaining to sanitation, quarantine, 
police protection, and the lighting of streets. 

The securing of food, clothing, and shelter may be 
considered together under the head of gaining a liveli- 
hood. While some gain these elements, at least in part, 
directly from the soil, fibers, quarries, mines, and for- 
ests, others gain them in the main indirectly by means 
of money earned in other ways. Science and technical 
knowledge may be of assistance to both classes, but 
here again the knowledge gained from general experi- 
ence is of great importance, though less than in the 
preceding item. The farmer, stockman, and gardener 
may make their work more remunerative through a 
knowledge of botany, zoology, and scientific agricul- 
ture, and the merchant may realize in cash on his 
knowledge of geography, economics, and psychology. 
The woman in the home may gain practical help from 
courses in domestic science and domestic art, which are 
based directly on chemistry, physiology, SBsthetics, and 
other sciences. Reading, writing, and arithmetic are 
used in their daily work by nearly all people. 

The members of the technical professions, such as 
law, medicine, engineering, and teaching, are obviously 
directly dependent on academic training for their live- 
lihood. Their knowledge and skill, acquired largely in 



THE ELEMENTAL EDUCATIONAL VALUES 125 

liberal and technical schools, is their invested capital. 
We are here obviously dealing with a phase of vocational 
education, but this should not bar it from serious and 
impartial consideration, not even if the individuals who 
received the training were the only ones to profit by it 
in any conspicuous degree. Educational theory that 
draws the line at social benefit, leaving the individual 
to himself the moment he does not give adequate return 
to others, rests on a selfish basis merely, and so does not 
measure up to educational theory at its best. Profes- 
sional training, however, is not individualistic only, but 
has a social side fully equal in importance to the indi- 
vidualistic side. As in the case of protection, this train- 
ing is again at the disposal of others who may profit by 
it indirectly, both through professional services and 
through the social influences of public and corporate 
enterprises that are guided by professional hands. 
Whether we get dividends from railroad, telegraph, and 
telephone lines or not, we reap the benefit of the engi- 
neer's training every time we take a trip, or send or re- 
ceive a parcel, a letter, or a message ; and the social 
effects of the other professions are no less evident. The 
men who give these services receive their fees or salaries, 
it is true, but they give enough in return to net a 
profit for the client as well. 

Among the sources of practical benefit that spring 
from public initiative may be mentioned the judicial, 
executive, and legislative offices, and state and muni- 
cipal sanitary undertakings. In a society organized like 
ours, the individual can indeed do something in apply- 
ing the teachings of bacteriology and hygiene to him- 
self, but this must ever be supplemented by public 
enterprise to be of much avail. Sewage-disposal, purifi.- 



126 THE PRINCIPLES OF EDUCATION 

cation of water-supply, control of contagious diseases, 
and other sanitary precautions cannot be left to the indi- 
vidual to be generally effective. But by public effort the 
revelations of science are made to do service for all 
through their appointed experts, and the dissemination of 
scientific knowledge goes far in initiating public effort 
and making it effective. 

History, economics, sociology, and political science 
are made effective for society largely through its legis- 
lators and executive and judicial officers. In addition to 
integrity of purpose, wise legislation and the just exe- 
cution and interpretation of the laws are in no small 
degree dependent upon a knowledge of the country's 
past, and upon the economic and social principles on 
which society rests. Without them law-making would 
be left to caprice and blind experimentation, and the 
executive and judicial officers would lack many funda- 
mental principles of guidance. The general dissemina- 
tion of this knowledge again furthers the efforts of the 
officials and makes possible intelligent voting. 

The practical value has reference to the function that 
studies serve in meeting our physical needs and conven- 
iences. No reference to anything beyond is involved. 
Knowledge of a subject and the application of this know- 
ledge are the only steps concerned. But this is clearly 
not the only way in which knowledge may benefit 
humanity. Indeed, by some the practical value, espe- 
cially when it takes the vocational bent, is scarcely 
admitted to the rank of an " educative " value. This term 
they would reserve for something more subtile and 
refined. But be that as it may, there unquestionably 
are a number of other values of which the teacher needs 
to be definitely aware. 



THE ELEMENTAL EDUCATIONAL VALUES 127 

52. The Socializing Value. Knowledge may benefit 
society through changing the disposition or attitude of 
the person who receives the knowledge. In connection 
with public health and political life we noted briefly that 
a general dissemination of the knowledge involved is a 
significant factor in furthering the efforts of the experts 
and officials. A person who understands the nature and 
dangers of bacteria will not oppose expenditure for a 
sanitary water-supply or stand in the way of enforcing 
quarantine regulati^ons. He is far more likely to give his 
generous support/ Kjiowledge tends to enlist the sym- 
pathy and cooperation of people in all worthy efforts, 
even though this knowledge is applied by others, while 
ignorance is a foe, or at best a dead weight, against 
change or improvement of all kinds. This tendency of 
knowledge to change the attitude of people is distinctly 
social and may be called its socializing value. It has 
reference to the gain in responsiveness, good will, coop- 
eration, toleration, and integrity that the possession of 
knowledge tends to produce. 

Social insight gives rise to social S3rmpathy and moral 
support that may touch every activity in which men 
engage. We are all so constituted as to crave the appre- 
ciation and the good will of others. But people can give 
these only when they have knowledge, and under the 
present differentiation of industry they are likely to re- 
main comparatively ignorant of all industries except their 
own. The school through knowledge and training must 
supply what social progress has otherwise precluded. The 
child with his little garden plot on the school campus 
has opened up to him by intelligent teaching the entire 
vocation of the farmer, especially if the school instruc- 
tion is wisely supplemented by country excursions, and 



128 THE PRINCIPLES OF EDUCATION 

he can ever after cooperate intelligently and sympathet- 
ically with all that pertains to the farmer's life. 

What is true for farming is correspondingly true for 
every other vocation. Manual or industrial training as 
an educative subject finds here one of its chief supports. 
It gives social insight in a number of directions, and 
through this, social sympathy and cooperation. It leads 
to a mutual understanding and appreciation between the 
various industrial classes. Geography gives a similar in- 
sight from the more purely intellectual standpoint, and 
it does this not only for most of the fundamental human 
activities, but also for the life of other nations and peo- 
ples, especially when supplemented by books of travel. 
The novel does the same from a different angle still, and 
adds to this the life of the various social strata. In fact, 
no content study is entirely without this value. 

Closely connected with social sympathy is the senti- 
ment of toleration. This sentiment is manifested partic- 
ularly in political and religious directions, where it may 
be fostered by school studies in no slight degree. His- 
tory, by giving impartial expositions of past political 
conflicts, leads the student to appreciate the fact that 
the leaders on both sides may be equally sincere and 
equally solicitous for the public welfare. Not having his 
own interests involved, he is put in a fair way to give the 
members of the opposing parties in his own time credit 
for sincerity of purpose, and even to extend to them his 
good will. 

Religious narrowness and strife have steadily declined 
with the advance of knowledge. History and psychology 
both reveal that man must have positive convictions re- 
garding the verities of life and existence in order to give 
him stability of character. But in the light of psycho- 



THE ELEMENTAL EDUCATIONAL VALUES 129 

logy, anthropology, and the comparative study of peoples 
and religions, both geographically and historically, it 
becomes evident that these convictions need not be iden- 
tical for all. It becomes evident to the student that God 
has favored all nations and all individuals in his own 
peculiar way, and he has been absent from none. What 
we believe is a function of both tradition and knowledge, 
and both anthropological and historical study reveal the 
fact that knowledge is ever becoming an increasing fac- 
tor in determining our beliefs. People believe according 
to their natures, their traditions, their training, and the 
light they have, and a genuine realization of this fact . 
as obtained through study is attended by far-reaching 
charity. The physical and biological sciences also con- 
tribute a large element to this tolerant spirit. Think for 
a moment of the softening influence that the spread of 
a genuine knowledge of the doctrine of evolution is pro- 
ducing. 

53. The Moral Value. These various elements of 
the socializing value might also be classified under 
the general heading of moral ^ value. While the words 
" moral " and " social " are not strictly synonymous, there 
is no logical demarcation between them. A moral value, 
narrowly considered, is always a species of social value. 
In conventional usage, however, the word " moral "is 
restricted to the injunctions of the Decalogue, and it is 
in this sense that we shall use it. 

While our moral convictions and habits are most 
vitally influenced by the home, the church, the person- 
ality of the teacher, and our daily associates, certain 
school studies are also not without their moral effect. 
Merely keeping people occupied along worthy lines, 

^ For a discussion of the meaning of this word see pp. 63-65 above. 



130 THE PRINCIPLES OF EDUCATION 

thus establishing worth}'- habits and removiag time and 
opportunity for baser pursuits, is a moral result. Much 
is usually claimed for the moulding influence of the 
characters portrayed in history and literature. These 
characters, from fact and from fiction, give embodi- 
ments of the noble as well as the base, together with the 
resulting consequences, and so may be taken as models, 
as well as revolting warnings, by the student. To what 
extent this is actually done has never been measured, 
but marked instances of moral inspiration and uplift 
received from these sources are comparatively frequent, 
indicating that less marked instances are common. 

Civil government is another subject whose possibilities 
in this direction are large. It is in this subject that the 
student may be most directly impressed with his duty 
concerning voting, the payment of taxes, attendance 
upon caucuses and meetings, and political life in general* 
This may be done with special effectiveness by making 
skillful use of the student's own activities in athletic 
clubs and in debating and literary societies. Advantage 
of this opportunity is being taken by the recent " School 
City" movement. 

54. The Conventional Value. In addition to being 
practical and to having a socializing effect, knowledge 
serves also to give a community of ideas for social in- 
tercourse. Social life needs a common basis both to 
cement it together and to make it enjoyable, and to the 
extent that knowledge supplies this basis it has a con- 
ventional value. But as there are lines of cleavage in 
society, this value does not consist merely in a common 
thought life, but also in standards that all of a certain 
social group are expected to meet. These groups are 
inherently jealous of their membership, and in order to 



THE ELEMENTAL EDUCATIONAL VALUES 131 

be admitted, a person must show outward signs of fit- 
ness. In England at the time of Locke, for example, it 
was expected of a "gentleman" to have studied both 
Latin and French, and there are a number of elements 
of knowledge in the curriculum now that are demanded 
largely, if not primarily, for conventional reasons. 

The raison d'etre of the conventional value as it is 
generally used is not always easy to see. The value is a 
complex one and has to be analyzed to be understood. 
A fundamental instinct involved in it is that of aesthetic 
appreciation. It is this that accounts in part at least 
for the perfection that is demanded in pronunciation, 
grammatical construction, and similar elements, and for 
the fact that knowledge is frequently used as a means 
of ornament. But the main factor involved in thisf 
value is apparently the index factor. The knowledge I 
demanded for conventional reasons is not necessarily 
valued for itself, but is taken by others as an index 
of our breeding and culture, while by the individual it 
may conversely be used as a means of display and of 
gaining social prestige, thus involving the instincts of 
approbation and rivalry. Such knowledge serves as an 
earmark of the culture and thoroughness demanded as a 
common basis for social intercourse, and while we are 
apparently approved or condemned by it directly, judg- 
ment is really passed on what it signifies ; or this is at 
least as it normally should be. The knowledge is analo- 
gous to style in attire and other conventions of refined 
society which, in addition to being aesthetic, stand, or 
normally should stand, for much more than surface 
indications. 

Among the things that are valued for conventional 
reasons may be mentioned grammatically correct English, 



132 THE PRINCIPLES OF EDUCATION 

correct pronunciation, correct spelling, some knowledge 
of the great literary masterpieces, the fundamental 
facts of history and geography, and many mathematical 
and scientific facts and expressions. Latin, French, art, 
music, and to some extent literature are frequently 
studied primarily for conventional or ornamental pur- 
poses. They are wanted for the sake of appearance and 
effect rather than for culture and usefulness, and when 
this is largely the case, the student's course may be 
criticised. This raises the question of the extent to 
which the conventional value is a legitimate value at all 
in education. Spencer, using the word " ornamental," in 
the sense of "display," in designating the value, con- 
demned it entirely. He would have it displaced by the 
practical and socializing values, which, as he saw it, 
would make marked modifications in the curriculum. 
He attacked especially Latin, French, German, and the 
"accomplishments" of dancing, deportment, the piano, 
singing, and drawing, which were usurping the time of 
more useful subjects, such as physiology, psychology, 
and the sciences generally. 

The standing of the conventional value becomes clear 
when we recognize that it is a secondary^ and not a pri- 
mary value. Its demands can be legitimately enforced 
only in regard to subjects that are needed in life for one 
or more of the other intrinsic values. Trouble arises only 
when its demands are enforced in regard to subjects that 
are obsolescent, or that have actually become obsolete, 
or whenever it is allowed to assume a primary instead 
of a secondary position. All the subjects mentioned 
above in illustration of the conventional value are de- 
manded in life by the practical, socializing, and cultural 
values, and only these values can determine the proper 



THE ELEMENTAL EDUCATIONAL VALUES 133 




may step in and reinforce the demands for their ac- 
quisition, and for accuracy and thoroughness in them. 
It should, however, not magnify certain subjects beyond 
their real significance, as is still unquestionably being 
done in some places. In Spencer's time this was appar- 
ently done beyond all bounds of reason, and his criticism 
was sorely needed. But this tendency is now on the de- 
cline, especially in American public education, where the 
merely conventional and ornamental has little chance. 

55. Meaning of " Social Value." In the last few 
years we have heard unusually much about the social aim 
of education and the social value of studies, but just what 
is meant by these phrases has never been clearly defined. 
The word " social " has become a shibboleth in the mouths 
of many and, while they have had a more or less vague 
notion of social benefit, composed more of feeling than 
of clearly defined thought, it has seldom, if ever, occurred 
to them to inquire into its precise meaning. The truth 
is that the expression " social value " does not stand for 
a simple concept that may be immediately apprehended, 
but for a complex idea that must be analyzed to be ade- 
quately understood. The values that are included in it 
are, first, the one that we have termed the^socializing 
value ; second, thehiioral value ; third, the^ocially prac- 
tical value ; and fourth^ the conventional value. All four 
of these are distinctly social in their bearing, but they 
are too heterogeneous to be indiscriminately lumped 
together. Furthermore, while the importance of these 
values, especially of the first three, is not questioned, it 
should be recognized that the aim of education cannot be 
restricted to them. Such restriction would fail to include 



134 THE PRINCIPLES OF EDUCATION 

some of the legitimate spheres of educational activity, 
and would theoretically subordinate the individual to the 
group in a manner that is contrary to fact. Education 
must prepare for individual happiness as well as for 
social usefulness, a proposition that the discussion of 
the culture values in the next chapter should establish. 



CHAPTER VIII 

THE ELEMENTAL EDUCATIONAL VALUES 
(B) Cultural Values 

56. Instrumental and Cultural Values Distinguished. 
The preparatory, introductory, practical, socializing, and 
conventional values may all be grouped together under 
the head of instrumental values. Viewed from this 
standpoint, studies are not appreciated directly, but they 
are appreciated for what may be done with them. They 
serve as instruments for achieving the various purposes 
of life, similar to the way in which mechanical tools and 
machinery serve as such instruments. The preparatory 
and introductory values help in other studies, the prac- 
tical value helps in utilitarian ways, the socializing value 
is a means to social and moral responsiveness, and the 
conventional value assists in social intercourse. But 
studies may also be appreciated directly, regardless of 
any ulterior benefits that they may bring. This is in 
a measure true of all studies, but it is especially evident 
in literature and the fine arts. These studies are valued 
largely or chiefly for the pleasure that their perusal 
affords, quite aside from the instrumental values that 
they may also possess. To the extent in which studies 
may be directly appreciated they are said to have a cul- 
tural value. 

57. Recognition and Terminology. The capacity of 
studies to yield intellectual and aesthetic enjoyment has 



136 THE PRINCIPLES OF EDUCATION 

long been recognized in educational and philosophical 
writings. This capacity held a peculiarly high place in 
the minds of the Athenian philosophers, and it has never 
lacked eloquent and appreciative advocates wherever 
mental culture has been approved or has flourished. But 
in spite of its age and importance, there is still little 
agreement as to the best name that should be applied 
to this value, or as to the sense in which the word " cul- 
tural " should be used. Of this fact the student of 
education should be apprised because it may save him 
much perplexity in his reading. Spencer does not name 
this value at all, but refers to it merely as " Those mis- 
cellaneous activities which make up the leisure part of 
life, devoted to the gratification of the tastes and feel- 
ings " (70: 32). Bagley, following a certain psycholo- 
gical usage, calls it the " sentimental value " because of 
the appeal that it makes to the sentiments or higher 
feelings. The word " cultural " Bagley uses as synony- 
mous with " conventional," especially conventional in 
the extreme and objectionable sense (cp. 4 : 48 and 
230) ; while D. E. Smith, in his "Teaching of Elemen- 
tary Mathematics," uses " cultural " as synonymous with 
*' disciplinary." Dewey defines " culture " as " the vital 
union of information and discipline " (16 : 19), thus 
making it as broad as the word " educative." 

Because of this confusion, some have advocated the 
disuse of the word " cultural " entirely in educational 
literature. They claim it is used so loosely and is withal 
so indefinite in meaning that it only hampers the pro- 
gress of educational science. That there is some truth 
in this contention cannot be denied, but the best way 
out is not by discarding the word entirely, but by res- 
cuing it from its indefiniteness. The word has become 



THE ELEMENTAL EDUCATIONAL VALUES 137 

so firmly intrenched in our educational vocabulary that 
it would be impossible to eradicate it, even if that were 
desirable. In the popular mind the word is apparently 
always taken to refer to the higher intellectual and 
aesthetic pleasures, and it is also used in this sense most 
frequently by educators. Home defines "culture" as 
" the capacity for the intellectual and aesthetic enjoyment / 
of leisure" (37 : 34), and W. H. Payne adopts the 
same meaning by applying the word to those uses of 
studies that " serve for delight " (62 : 161) ; but too 
many educational writers, whether they use the word in 
this sense or not, are careless about telling us just what 
they do mean by it. They use it as a blanket word 
covering almost anything in educational values, and it 
is evident from the context that the thought they have 
back of the word is no more definite than the use they 
make of the word. 

58. The Cultural Value Analyzed. The main cause 
of the difficulty with the word " cultural " undoubtedly 
lies in the fact that the ramifications of its meaning have 
never been clearly traced out and defined. The concept 
to which it is applied is generic instead of specific, and 
so has to be analyzed. Even when restricted to " intel- 
lectual and aesthetic enjoyment," we have included in 
it still a number of values that in the interest of clear- 
ness must be distinguished. The intellectual and the 
aesthetic activities of our minds are not sufficiently alike 
to be indiscriminately classed together. We should make 
here at least two values, which we may call respectively 
the liber'alizing and the sentimental. The latter applies 
to the pleasure that results from the exercise that 
studies give to the feelings, and the former applies to 
the pleasure that accompanies intellectual insight. The 



138 THE PRINCIPLES OF EDUCATION 

liberalizing value may be illustrated by the pleasure 
and attitude resulting from the insight into natural phe- 
nomena given by physics or astronomy, and the senti- 
mental by the enjoyment of a picture, a piece of music, 
or a poem. 

Both of these aspects, of the cultural value arise from 
the biological fact that the proper exercise of any func- 
tion or capacity yields pleasure. This applies not only 
to man, but to the lower animals as well. It is at the 
root of the universal tendency to play. Given a capa- 
city, an animal will instinctively seek to exercise it, if 
not in seriousness, then in fun. The serious motive leads 
to individual and to race preservation, and the other to 
the phenomenon we call " play." Man possesses the 
power to walk so as to be able to move readily from 
place to place, but he takes many a stroll for pleasure. 
He can talk for the sake of communicating information, 
but he by no means restricts the capacity to this func- 
tion. The capacities of intellect and feeling are subject 
to the same rule. Man craves something to occupy both 
his body and his mind. 

Phylogenetically, this tendency to play, using the word 
in a very broad sense, has no doubt been selected be- 
cause of its survival value. An animal that plays has at 
least four advantages over one that does not. It gets 
training in a useful function, it gets physical exercise, 
it is led to useful discoveries through the indulgence 
of curiosity, and, when we come to man at least, it gets 
mental as well as physical relaxation. All these are aids 
to health and efficiency, and so to biological survival. 
But these benefits seldom form the immediate motive 
for playful indulgence, not even when we come to the 
reflective life of man. The immediate motive usually is 



THE ELEMENTAL EDUCATIONAL VALUES 139 

the pleasure that the activity itself affords. This is not 
strange, for ultimately we live only in conscious experi- 
ences, and it is these that we are seeking. Life is rich 
or poor according to the wealth or poverty of these ex- 
periences. This makes the culture values, which in the 
main are but play values refined and humanized, the 
most fundamental values of all. The other values may 
be looked upon as relative to them, for in the end they 
are all valued because they contribute to desired expe- 
riences. Their instrumental nature thus becomes again 
evident. 

But the play activities, in which music, art, and lit- 
erature are included, are not the only activities that 
yield enjoyment. Such enjoyment may also be legiti- 
mately and abundantly obtained from the pursuit of 
one's vocation, which makes the sentimental value, and at 
times the liberalizing value also, apply to the activities 
involved in one's calling, as well as to the activities in- 
volved in the avocational pursuit of literature and art. 
It is unwise, however, to rely on one's calling for all of 
one's enjoyment, for one needs variety, both for maxi- 
mum efficiency and for the maximum satisfaction of 
life. An avocati on is scarcely less essential than a v oca- 
iion in a life that is to be both objectively and subjec- 
tively successful. 

SQ. The Sentimental Value. The sentimental value 
takes many different forms, as many forms, in fact, as 
man uses in seeking emotional satisfaction. But for the 
school these may all be reduced to a few classes. Studies 
may stimulate the aesthetic sentiment, the comic senti- 
ment, the social sentiment, and the moral sentiment. 

The group of sentiments to which the general name 
of " aesthetic " is applied is appealed to primarily by the 



140 THE PRINCIPLES OF EDUCATION 

drama, literature, music, painting, sculpture, and archi- 
tecture. These subjects are valued primarily because of 
the immediate appeal they make to our feelings of ap- 
preciation. They have other values too, especially the 
conventional and socializing, and through their power 
to inspire and recuperate they make for greater practi- 
cal efficiency, but the usual and most immediate object 
we have in mind when pursuing them is to add to the 
delight and richness of life. This is the bait that 
entices us, and the bait is in itself so attractive that the 
other values seldom need to be drawn upon to enlist 
our interest. 

In connection with literature, and to some extent also 
with other forms of artistic expression, should be men- 
tioned the sentiment of humor. It is one of a writer's 
or an artist's legitimate purposes to amuse and to create 
a laugh. Remove this element from Dickens and from 
Irving, and one of their chief charms is gone. Mark 
Twain, Jerome K. Jerome, and other humorists rely 
upon it as their chief support ; and with innumerable 
other writers it plays a minor, although a significant 
part. Sculptors and painters use it less than writers, 
but if we admit ordinary comic pictures, the brush and 
pencil artists form a close second in this respect to the 
literary humorists. 

Because humor is everywhere a large and delightful 
element of life, it should have a conspicuous place in 
the school. The medisBval notion that the school is a 
solemn place where every one must always be quiet has 
not yet entirely disappeared. It is the duty of the school, 
moreover, to cultivate the judgment of humor. This trait 
is used quite as extensively in life as the sense of the 
beautiful, and lack of discrimination in it is quite as 



THE ELEMENTAL EDUCATIONAL VALUES 141 

offensive. It is amenable to cultrvation no less than 
the aesthetic sense, and is just as likely to remain crude 
without it. Its cultivation would not have to wean the 
public from the comic section of the Sunday news- 
paper, but the quality of that section might be palpa- 
bly improved thereby. 

Another aspect of the sentimental value of literature 
is the exercise that it gives to the imagination. In both 
prose and poetry are painted many beautiful word pic- 
tures whose enjoyment is much enhanced by picturing 
them in the mind. Furthermore, it is manifestly im- 
possible for us to experience life in every phase, but 
through the combination of literature and the imagina- 
tion we can live in many phases that would otherwise be 
entirely inaccessible to us. In reading the novel, this life 
by proxy is frequently the primary motive. But there 
is much more involved here than the exercise of the 
imagination. Probably even more fundamental than it 
are the social feelings. It is the indulgence of these feel- 
ings that yields the reader the most pleasure and recre- 
ation. He lives with the characters of the book, lov- 
ing or hating or being indifferent to them scarcely less 
than if they were real. The moral sentiments may be 
similarly involved. The reader may get the keenest ap- 
preciation from a strong moral situation, and he may 
have his sympathy touched to the quick. 

While the stimulation of all the sentiments is enjoy- 
able, and while the pleasure and relaxation received 
therefrom may be a sufficient return in the aesthetic 
and comic sentiments, this is rarely, if ever, the case 
when it comes to the social and moral sentiments. Here 
the mere indulgence of the feelings is called " sentimen- 
talism" and is condemned. The fault lies in the fact 



142 THE PRINCIPLES OF EDUCATION 

that the sentimentalist limits his reactions to feeling, 
refraining for various reasons from letting this feeling 
be expressed in action. The person of wealth and lei- 
sure may read a novel or go to the theatre and weep 
over the sufferings from poverty that he sees portrayed, 
but he may not feel called upon to mitigate a similar 
condition in his own neighborhood. The propriety of 
feeling strongly and deeply with the characters in a 
book or in a play is not questioned, but the matter 
should not end there. One's energy should not escape 
merely in sentimental vaporings, but the experience 
should make one more social and moral. Literature 
and art may, and usually do, possess the moral and 
socializing values as well as the sentimental, and when 
this is the case, these values should be realized. But 
these two classes of value are not at all incompatible 
and may be realized together. One may enjoy a novel 
or play no less, but rather more, for being made more 
kind and sympathetic through it and having that kind- 
ness and sympathy tell in one's life. 

Although we have illustrated the sentimental value 
by reference only to the art subjects, it should not be 
inferred that this value is restricted to them. It is 
more central in these subjects than in the others, but 
it is entirely absent from none. History and philosophy 
may be appreciated much as literature may, and there 
are phases of the various sciences that appeal very 
keenly to the aesthetic sense. These phases may be ap- 
preciated no less readily than the aesthetic phases of 
literature and art. After scientific insight has once 
been obtained, its results may be enjoyed practically 
without effort. The heavens with their constellations, 
the ever shifting planets, the darting meteors, and the 



THE ELEMENTAL EDUCATIONAL VALUES 143 

occasional comets are displayed for us every clear 
night and may be enjoyed by merely looking upward. 
The person with a knowledge of the plants and flowers 
has a delightful and diversified companionship along 
the roadside or in his strolls through the fields and 
woods ; and what applies to botany applies likewise to 
zo<51ogy, geology, and mineralogy, and in a measure 
also to physics and chemistry. Language and mathe- 
matics are also not without their aesthetic aspects. We 
have art wherever we have perfection of system or 
organization, and this art may be enjoyed by every dis- 
cerning mind. 

60. The Liberalizing Value. The liberalizing value 
has its root in curiosity, which is one of the instinctive 
manifestations of mental life. In man this instinct has 
been developed into a high form of mental activity 
called the power of rationalization. Man craves not 
only to know the things in his environment individually, 
but he is not satisfied until he has resolved them into a 
consistent system. The working out of the instinct has 
given us our sciences, as well as our systems of philoso- 
phy, and it is ever engaged in raising them to higher de- 
grees of perfection. This organization of knowledge has 
a practical value, for it makes the knowledge more avail- 
able and vastly increases and economizes man's control 
over nature's forces, but this is not the only motive 
that animates either the student or the investigator. 
The satisfaction coming from insight into system con- 
stitutes in itself a most powerful motive, and it is to 
this insight and the attitude and satisfaction resulting 
from it that the term " liberalizing " may be applied. 

It has been aptly said that the word " liberal " comes 
from the root liber meaning " free," and not from the 



144 THE PRINCIPLES OF EDUCATION 

root liher meaning " book." Etymologically, therefore, 
a liberal education is not fundamentally a book educa- 
tion, but an education that sets the mind free. It is an 
education that is in harmony with the words of Jesus 
when he said : " Ye shall know the truth, and the 
truth shall make you free." Such an education gives 
a person a systematic and truthful acquaintance with 
the elements of his environment, and so places him in 
appreciative harmony with them. It sets him literally 
free, not only mentally, but in a measure also physically, 
among the phenomena of both nature and society. The 
person of liberal culture is free to think consistently 
about the things of science and humanity and he may 
act with confidence on his conclusions, while the igno- 
rant, prejudiced, or unsystematically trained person is 
restricted in the range and variety of his mental life and 
his conduct is made hesitant by uncertainty and fear. 
His condition is typified by the superstitious attitude 
of primitive people toward astronomical phenomena. 
Not understanding these phenomena, they feared them 
and were in a state of mental and physical bondage to 
them. But in cultured races this bondage has been en- 
tirely removed by the advance of knowledge, and in its 
place there has been opened a wide and attractive realm 
to mental life. What is true of astronomy is true also 
of every other department of knowledge. Studies widen 
the mental horizon and give a person a positive attitude 
of freedom toward the world. The word " liberal " in 
the phrases "* liberal education " and " liberal culture " 
characterizes this aspect of educational influences, and 
the fact that this aspect is singled out and designated 
is a tribute to its worth. 

The liberalizing value of knowledge may be illustrated 



THE ELEMENTAL EDUCATIONAL VALUES 145 

more specifically by reference to teaching. The know- 
ledge of educational theory improves the teaching pro- 
cess and so has a practical value, but this need not be 
the greatest benefit that it confers. The greatest benefit 
may lie in the fact that it gives the teacher reasons for 
doing things that he would otherwise do empirically. 
A teacher without theory is groping relatively in the 
dark, and in consequence he feels cramped and uncom- 
fortable in his work, while the knowing teacher is work- 
ing in the light, and as a result is working with freedom 
and ease. 

As the sentimental value is most characteristic of the 
art subjects, so the liberalizing value is most character- 
istic of the sciences. Every science liberates the mind 
in its own peculiiar realm. But this value is not re- 
stricted to the sciences. It may be obtained from any 
subject that is systematically pursued. The condition 
in which it inheres is system based on fundamental 
principles. Insight into this system liberates the mind, 
whether it be in science, art, history, or language. The 
philologist or the historian gains an appreciation of the 
law and order that prevails in the universe as well as 
the physicist or chemist. 

The capacity of the sciences to yield both intellectual 
and aesthetic appreciation has long received full recogni- 
tion from the scientists, but the devotees of art, litera- 
ture, and the languages are prone to conclude that the 
scientist is without those elements of delight in his work 
that are theirs so abundantly. This is a great mistake. 
The varied opportunities for achievement and mental 
activity that the sciences offer give them a fascination 
second to no other subject. But in all comparisons of this 
kind it should be recognized that the capacity of a sub- 



146 THE PRINCIPLES OF EDUCATION 

ject or calling to arouse interest and willing effort is deter- 
mined primarily by the nature of the person concerned. 
What is one's meat is another's poison, here as elsewhere. 
Because a particular line of training and culture has given 
you a high degree of enjoyment and efficiency, perhaps 
the most that it was possible for you to obtain, it does 
not necessarily follow that this line of training and cul- 
ture is the best for everybody. 

6 1. The Period of Mental Reconstruction. The lib- 
eralizing influence of studies is intimately connected with 
that phase of mental development known as the period 
of mental reconstruction. The different departments of 
a child's knowledge are relatively detached from one 
another, but those of an adult, especially an adult of the 
reflective type, form a unity. He has his knowledge or- 
ganized into a system in which everything he knows has 
a definite place, and into which each new thing learned 
is promptly fitted. If the new is incongruous with the 
system, or with any part of it, the system is modified to 
meet the situation. But some form of system is always 
maintained in the mind of the reflective adult, and it may 
properly be said of him that he has a philosophy of life, 
or of the world. 

The transition from an unorganized to a consciously 
organized mental life is made in all degrees of abrupt- 
ness. It may occur so gradually that the person con- 
cerned is never aware of any change taking place. He 
may realize on looking back that his point of view has 
changed and that his mental life has become unified, but 
he can point to no specific experience that has brought 
it about. On the other hand, a person may make the 
transition in a comparatively short space of time, and 
be keenly conscious of the fact that his mental life is 



THE ELEMENTAL EDUCATIONAL VALUES 147 

changing. Between these two extremes lie all possible 
shades of gradation. 

This period of reconstruction is frequently referred to 
by writers who have themselves consciously experienced 
it, and some data pertaining to it have been collected 
by investigators.^ The writer made this period the sub- 
ject of an inductive investigation a few years ago and 
obtained some interesting results.^ By means of a ques- 
tionnaire, supplemented by correspondence and personal 
interviews, he got usable returns from 282 teachers and 
graduate students. These returns were divided into four 
classes on the basis of the profoundness of the recon- 
structive experience. These classes may be briefly de- 
scribed as having experienced transitions (1) that were 
gradual and unnoticeable, (2) that contained a number 
of noticeable but slight reconstructions, (3) that con- 
tained two or more weU-marked reconstructions, and 
(4) that contained one pronounced reconstruction in 
which the mental life was consciously unified. The per- 
centages of the whole number falling in these four 
classes were respectively 23, 34, 22, and 21. 

Typical descriptions of actual experiences from each 
class need not be given at this place, but one illustrative 
of class four may be inserted. It comes from the life of 
John Stuart Mill, and is recorded on page 66 of his 
^' Autobiography." He says : — 

When I laid down the last volume of the traite [Du- 
mont's "Traite de Legislation," three volumes],! had 
become a different being. The "principle of utility" 
understood as Bentham understood it, and applied in the 

^ See for example, Starbuck, The Psychology of Religion^ chap. xxii. 
^ See Ruediger, " The Period of Mental Reconstruction," American 
Journal of Psychology^ July, 1907, pp. 353-370. 



148 



THE PRINCIPLES OF EDUCATION 



manner in which he applied it through these three vol- 
umes, fell exactly into its place as the keystone which 
held together the detached and fragmentary component 
parts of my knowledge and beliefs. It gave unity to my 
conception of things. I now had opinions ; a creed, a 
doctrine, a philosophy ; in one among the best senses of 
the word, a religion. 

Several other descriptions may be found in the study 
made by the writer. 

Among the data elicited were the causes that were in- 
fluential in precipitating the reconstructive experience. 
These are condensed in the following table. The per- 
centages are based upon the entire number of causes 
mentioned. Of these there were 490 in all, 253 by the 
men and 237 by the women. Counting only those who 
mentioned causes, this gives an average of 2.4 per man 
and 2.5 per woman. 



CAUSES 



Personalities .... 
Science and Philosophy 
Psychology .... 

Literature 

Entering College . . 
Joining Church . . . 
Miscellaneous . . . 



MEN 


WOMEN 


35 per cent 


45.4 percent 


33 


18 


4 


3.4 « 


5.6 " 


8.3 « 


8.6 " 


16.3 « 


6 


2.6 « 


7.8 « 


6 « 



In conversation, in letters, and on the returns the 
statement was frequently made that the items mentioned 
should not be regarded as sufficient causes, but rather as 
inciting causes. They precipitated a reconstruction for 
which the mind had long been getting ready through 
study and experience. The particular influences served 



THE ELEMENTAL EDUCATIONAL VALUES 149 

only to supply a unifying principle for things that were 
already in the mind, but which had not become inte- 
grated. The development is ultimately an educational 
one, and in its entirety is really always of slow growth. 

No evidence appeared in the data that a person's men- 
tal life ever becomes integrated and liberalized on the 
basis of a few studies or profound influences alone. This 
result appears always to require breadth, as well as thor- 
oughness, of training and experience. Inference from the 
nature of the reconstructive experience seems to lead to 
the same conclusion. Psychologically, the heart of this ex- 
perience is the abstraction and generalization of system. 
After a number of subjects have been studied, the student 
begins to see that the system which inheres in one of 
them is really typical of all. But in order to see this, one 
subject at least must be known thoroughly or philoso- 
phically, and several others must be known in outline 
so that generalization may be made possible. This makes 
the period of reconstruction the crowning point of the 
liberalizing influence of studies, and this is true whether 
the transition takes place rapidly or slowly. 

The difference between people that are conscious of 
transitions and those that are not seems to be in the main 
temperamental. In making the study, environmental 
causes were looked for, but none were evident. The fact 
seems to be that some of the people in classes one and 
two are so conservative, or cautious, or reactionary re- 
garding new ideas that they do not adopt them outright, 
but " get used " to them so gradually that they never 
really know when they get them, while others reconstruct ; 
their mental content whenever they meet a new fact or 
idea and so experience many scarcely noticeable transi- 
tions. The members of classes three and four, on the 



150 THE PRINCIPLES OF EDUCATION 

other hand, keep on accumulating knowledge without 
considering its more profound meaniDg until this is 
finally forced upon them, and then a marked recon- 
struction results. 

The causes of the transition given in the preceding 
table reveal a number of sex differences and are other- 
wise interesting. Personal influences take an extremely 
high rank, and, as would be expected, count more with 
women than with men. They form nearly one half the 
influences mentioned by the women and only about one 
third of those mentioned by the men. Teachers appear 
to exert about equal influence over the sexes. They com- 
prise 18 per cent of the items for the men and 21 per cent 
for the women. This leaves a balance of 17 per cent and 
24 per cent for personalities closer than teachers, such 
as parents, brothers, sisters, and friends, or a ratio of 3 : 2 
in favor of the women. Science and philosophy, on the 
other hand, count more with men than with women, iu 
the ratio of nearly 2:1. The fact that men study these 
subjects more than women, and therefore are influenced 
more by them, does not explain away this difference in 
the figures, but points in the same direction. The reason 
why men study them more is not so much conventional 
as it is because they are more attracted to them. Litera- 
ture is not given as a cause as nmch more f reqjiently by 
the women than by the men as might have been expected. 
But when it is known that Emerson and Browning are 
the authors most frequently mentioned, this may be ac- 
counted for. The writings of these authors might almost 
as well have been classed with philosophy, for they sup- 
ply the same kind of unifying principles. Entering col- 
lege, by which those answering meant either the event 
of going off to college or the influence of the college 



THE ELEMENTAL EDUCATIONAL VALUES 151 

course, appears decidedly more momentous for women 
than for men. This is very likely owing to the fact that 
it forms more of a contrast in their lives than it does in 
those of the men. Joining church, on the other hand, im- 
presses the men more than the women. The explanation is 
probably similar to that of the preceding, but it is re- 
versed for the sexes. Boys are more likely than girls to 
get away from the influence of the church, and so coming 
back and joining it forms more of a step for them. But 
whether the reconstructive experience was precipitated 
by a person, by philosophy, by science, by literature, or 
by something else, the evidence shows that it was caused 
by some sort of a synthesizing influence. This would 
speak for the study of philosophy or the higher relations 
of science in the latter part of the college course. 

The ages at which the transition occurred in class 
four vary for the men from 14 to 42 years, with an 
average of 22.2 years and a median of 21 years. 47 
per cent of the ages fall between 18 and 22 inclusive, 
63 per cent between 18 and 25 inclusive, and 16| per 
cent below 18 years. For the women the ages vary 
from 13 to 32 years, with an average of 20.25 years 
and a median of 19.5 years. 53 per cent of the ages 
lie between 18 and 20 inclusive, 70 per cent between 
18 and 22, and only 10 per cent fall below 18 years. 
The men show a greater range of variation than the 
women and average nearly two years older. This dif- 
ference agrees well with the difference in the time of 
the advent of puberty in the two sexes, which indicates 
that the period of reconstruction is likewise a function 
of maturity, in part at least. 

The average time spent in the transition by the men 
was 1.6 years and by the women 2.1. The women evi- 



152 THE PRINCIPLES OF EDUCATION 

dently take a longer time to adjust themselves to new 
points of view than the men. This is in harmony with 
the common observation that women are, as a rule, more 
conservative than men. In the reconstruction, usually 
long cherished, but now inconsistent, views must be modi- 
fied or discarded, and although the women are intellectu- 
ally convinced of the new truths, their feelings linger. 

62. Conclusion. In concluding this chapter it should 
be noted that the cultural values have reference pri- 
marily to individual benefit rather than to the benefit 
of society in general. It is the individual that is liber- 
alized by study or that gains the pleasure from artistic, 
literary, and scientific knowledge and activity. The 
many may, and usually do, gain indirectly from the fact 
that the individual is made more agreeable or efficient 
because of the pleasure or recreation he has derived, but 
this is probably not always the case and is not necessary 
in justifying this value. The enrichment of an individual 
life may certainly be a sufficient justification, and all 
fair-minded people who have experienced the delights 
of culture themselves are pleased to grant these delights 
to others, even though they themselves may never profit 
in any way whatsoever. They have cause to interfere, 
only when they are trodden upon ; when the individual 
receiving the pleasure and recreation is made socially 
worse thereby. He might be made worse directly by 
having him made less agreeable or less efficient by this 
element, although this is scarcely conceivable, or indi- 
rectly by having it encroach upon the opportunities be- 
longing to the other values. But this does not change 
the fact that the culture value is primarily individual 
and only secondarily social, a fact, moreover, that in no 
wise disparages the concomitant social values. A study 



THE ELEMENTAL EDUCATIONAL VALUES 153 

such as history or biology may very well possess both 
the cultural and the social values, which is no doubt 
usually the case ; but the point here made is that this 
need not be the case ; that these values may and should 
be logically distinguished and be given separate consid- 
eration in evaluating studies or education. This, how- 
ever, is either not seen, or is usually forgotten by pre- 
sent educators. They remember only the social values 
and justify or condemn studies on that basis alone. We 
have here apparently an extreme position of the peda- 
gogical pendulum. The "social" has been, and in a 
measure still is, a fad in education. The various ele- 
ments of the social value are indispensable and are 
bound to retain a high place in education, but it will no 
doubt also become evident, when the dust clears away, 
that the individual cannot be wholly subordinated. 

The values that we have brought out in the last two 
chapters may be summarized in the following outline. 
The moral and the conventional values are purposely 
indented to show their subordination. The moral value 
is logically a phase of the socializing value, while the 
conventional is a secondary value. 

. . ( Preparatory 

Apperceptive -s t ^ i ^ 
rr r ^ introductory 

p . , ( Direct, — for the individual 

( Indirect, — for the group 

o . T • ( Sympathy 

Socializing i m 1 ,. 

° ( ioleration, etc. 

Moral \ Integrity 

( Reliability, etc. 

^ , . , ( Ornamental 

Conventional < -r ■, . y-, ,, 

( Index to Culture 

_, , - ( Sentimental 

Cultural -s T-u T • 

( Liberalizing 



Instrumental < 



154 THE PRINCIPLES OF EDUCATION 

It is evident that these values are but an elabora- 
tion of the three aspects of the meaning of adjustment 
brought out in chapter iii. We brought out in that 
chapter that adjustment ultimately means intelligent 
mastery over one's environment, increased harmony 
with it, and added appreciation of it. The instrumental 
values give the intelligent mastery, the liberalizing val- 
ues give the harmony, and the sentimental values give 
the appreciation. 

EXERCISES 

1. How may the sentiment of humor be cultivated ? 

2. May the intellectual sentiment be distinguished from 
the liberalizing value ? 

3. In what way does Spencer's basis of the analysis of edu- 
cational values (p. 68 above) differ from that of the text ? 

4. Analyze the educational value of the following subjects : 
grammar, geography, algebra, German, Latin, astronomy, 
music. 

6. Under what value should the recognition of allusions, 
such as " Hobson's choice," and " crossing the Rubicon," be 
classified ? 

6. On what basis do students elect studies, or courses of 
study ? Can you trace the causes that have operated in your 
own case ? 

7. What should be the primary determinant in choosing 
one's calling in life ? What other determinants also exert an 
influence ? 

8. In what sense may the phrase "art for art's sake" 
be legitimately used ? Explain these statements : " Virtue is 
its own reward." "The reward of a good deed is having 
done it." 

9. Discuss : " First and foremost, I should say that Latin 
is of value because it confers a mastery over the resources of 
one's mother tongue. . . . Training in English, then, as the 



THE ELEMENTAL EDUCATIONAL VALUES 155 

result of careful translation of Latin is here set down as the 
first and most important reason for studying Latin " (7 : 11). 
10. Discuss : " The English training derived from such 
careful translation as above described seems to me greatly 
superior to that gained by the usual methods of English com- 
position " (7 : 21). 

COLLATERAL READING 

Bagley, Educative Process, 225-238. 

Hanus, Educational Aims and Educational Values, 3-20. 

Payne, Training of Teachers, 155-184. 

Spenceb, Education, 24-93. 




6 



^i-v-^-" -^^^ 



CHAPTER IX 

THE ELEMENTAL EDUCATIONAL VALUES 

(C) Formal Values 

63. Content and Formal Values Distinguished. The 
elemental values of education that were discussed in the 
two preceding chapters may, in reference to the subject- 
matter of the curriculum, all be classified as contentful 
rather than formal. Each one involves a direct use of 
the content of the various studies. The practical value 
implies material gain or physical comfort through the 
application of knowledge ; the social value implies social 
sympathy and cooperation through insight based on 
knowledge ; and the culture values imply recreation, 
entertainment, and mental freedom through the use of 
knowledge. But these values are not the only ones that 
knowledge is usually taken to have. Corresponding to 
the formal aims of education that we discussed in chap- 
ters V and vi, knowledge is taken also to have formal 
values in addition to the content or intrinsic values men- 
tioned. These values we shall now examine more closely, 
although in a measure we have already considered them. 
64. The Formal Values. Theoretically, the acquisi- 
tion of knowledge may exert a formal or general educa- 
tive influence in at least three ways. It may exert this 
influence (1) through the factor of identical elements 
as brought out in chapter vi, (2) through the princi- 
ple of habit formation, which may modify inherent dis- 
position, and (3) through giving exercise to the brain, 



THE ELEMENTAL EDUCATIONAL VALUES 157 

which may have a general tonic effect on the mind 
through the brain. 

The third rubric is the most evident one and should 
probably not be classed as a formal influence. Still, it 
is well to bear it clearly in mind, if for no other reason 
than to keep it from becoming entangled in discussions 
about formal discipline. Mental power is in many ways 
analogous to physical strength, if, indeed, it does not 
follow precisely the same laws throughout. The muscles 
and the brain are both physical organs, and there is 
every reason to believe that exercise affects both in a 
similar manner. An unexercised brain deteriorates just 
like an unexercised muscle, and proper exercise acts as 
a tonic to each. This exercise may not change native 
capacity, but it is nevertheless indispensable in keeping 
this capacity at its maximum efficiency, and through the 
health that it imparts its influence is in a degree at least 
general. This influence is probably most vitally exerted 
in the course of development from infancy to maturity. 
There seems to be no question that maximum physical 
development cannot be obtained without proper physical 
exercise, and if this exercise is omitted during any 
considerable part of the growing period, the loss that 
results therefrom cannot be fully regained later. If a 
similar condition holds for the brain, and there is no 
reason to doubt that it does, a proper amount of brain 
exercise obtained through study during the growing 
period is an indispensable factor in bringing the adult 
brain to its maximum efficiency. What amount of sucb 
exercise is a " proper " amount is a problem for the 
genetic psychologist to determine, but the specialization 
of the mental powers leaves no doubt of the fact that 
this exercise should be varied. 



158 THE PRINCIPLES OF EDUCATION 

The second rubric, the one pertaining to the modi- 
fication of disposition through habit formation, bears 
the closest resemblance to the traditional conception of 
formal culture. It used to be thought that study added 
directly to the fund of intellectual and moral power, 
and that this gain of power would remain even after 
all that had been learned was forgotten. The analysis 
we made in chapter vi shows that this conception is 
precluded by scientific psychology, but a result very 
similar to this is obtained through the factor of training 
in education. As the twig is bent, the tree is inclined. 
We know that a horse or a dog may be spoilt by the 
way he is trained, and the spoilt child is a proverbial 
example of what training may or may not do. The 
person drilled from infancy in the little niceties of 
aeportment Las these niceties ingrained into his very 
nature and uses them easily and gracetully t hroughout 
lite, while the (ihild who Was not so fortunate in his 
training has difiiculty ever to make them his own, even 
though his later environment would require them. The 
mechanizations involved in habitually correct speech, 
correct spelling, the knowledge of aritlimetical tables, 
the trained voice, and the motor skill of the musician 
are all examples of the modification of disposition 
resulting from education. But this influence need not 
be restricted to these physical and relatively low activi- 
ties. An environment conducive to kind and cheerful 
thoughts tends to make these thoughts habitual and to 
allow the opposite tendency to atrophy. Vicious tend- 
encies may be weakened by curtailing their expression 
and by supplanting them with nobler activities. Indeed, 
no effort put forth in study can be without some effect 
of this kind. The identical elements of method and of 



THE ELEMENTAL EDUCATIONAL VALUES 159 

aim, when used much, may also become largely habitual, 
and when this is the case, their influence falls under this 
head. Any mental function that is exercised becomes 
ingrained and is ever more readily exercised, while one 
that is not exercised tends to die out. 

65. Relation of Form and Content Values. The 
nature of the generalized influence of studies through 
the identical elements of content, method, and aim 
was sufiiciently discussed in chapter vi and so need not 
be repeated here. A question that needs to be consid- 
ered in more detail, however, is the relation of the in- 
trinsic and formal values. This question may perhaps 
be most readily approached by taking our departure 
from the manner in which these two types of values have 
frequently been regarded in the past. The content val- 
ues have not always been overlooked by the formalists. 
They have frequently discussed them, but they have 
looked upon them as subordinate to the formal or dis- 
ciplinary values. W. H. Payne, in his " Training of 
Teachers," page 143, says : " Studies serve three main 
purposes and therefore have three main values. They 
serve for discipline, as a mental gymnastic ; they endow 
the mind with instrumental knowledge, or knowledge 
for guidance ; and they serve for delight." This order 
must not be taken as a chance arrangement, but it is 
implied throughout the chapter that the disciplinary 
value is as independent as the others and is probably 
the most important. This position is fallen into even 
by some who have rejected the traditional conception 
of formal discipline. Seashore, in the closing lines of 
the introduction to his " Elementary Experiments in 
Psychology," says : " Your primary aim in this course 
should be, not to collect facts, but to acquire training. 



160 THE PRINCIPLES OF EDUCATION 

Carry habits of introspection, precision, analysis, and 
natural explanation into life and you will realize the 
force of our motto: not psychology, but to psycholo- 
gize." 

The thesis here maintained is that the formal values 
never take rank above the intrinsic values, but that, 
while they may at times be quite coordinate with them, 
they are usually subordinate to them. The most that 
Seashore could logically have done was to place the 
acquisition of training and the collection of facts on an 
approximately equal footing. This is especially true 
since his book is concerned primarily with psychological 
knowledge and not with psychological method. What 
is the purpose of " introspection, precision, analysis, and 
natural explanation," if it is not the acquisition of reli- 
able facts, — facts that may be put to use in the duties 
of life ? The point is not that the " training value " 
should be minimized, but that it should be viewed in 
its right relation. In life, method is for the sake of 
content, for the sake of results, and not for the sake of 
the method itself. In particular reference to psychology, 
we may say that we want accurate facts and principles 
primarily to be used in teaching, in law, in medical 
practice, in business, and so on, but in order to get 
these facts in a reliable and progressive manner, we 
must also give painstaking attention to " introspection, 
precision, analysis, and natural explanation." 

We are dealing here with the formal value of edu- 
cation that comes through the channel of identity of 
method. What we have just said regarding method in 
psychology applies equally to method in every other 
study or activity. Valuable though method is, it cannot 
stand alone. It is necessarily subordinate to content and 



THE ELEMENTAL EDUCATIONAL VALUES 161 

cannot be taught except through content. This relation 
holds also in regard to the formal value that we have 
designated " identity of aim." Aims and ideals are rel- 
ative to the concrete activities of life in school and in 
society, just as method is relative to content. Truth- 
fulness, for example, is nothing by it self and cannot be , 
taught in the abstract, it is a generalized ideal that 
rests upon many concrete instances of truth-telling to 
which it owes its life. Merely to have the ideal without 
putting it into practice, if indeed this is possible, would 
do no good. It would be " goody-goody " only, the atti- 
tude that is everywhere so heartily despised. And what 
is true here of truthfulness is again true of all other 
standards and ideals. 

The transfer of mental function through identity of 
substance is not a gain through a formal value, strictly 
interpreted, but through a content value. This element 
accounts in part for the transfer of educational effect 
from one study to another, but the gain is received from 
the direct application of previously acquired knowledge. 
Mathematics, for example, assists in the study of phys- 
ics directly as mathematics, and not indirectly in a 
formal way. This value therefore turns out to be the 
preparatory value considered in chapter vii. 

This distinguishing feature of the element that we 
have called identity of substance brings out the point 
that the three identical elements we have mentioned are 
not of coordinate rank. They again fall into our famil- 
iar twofold classification of form and content. Only the 
identities of method and of aim are formal in the logi- 
cal sense, while the identity of substance is contentful. 
This makes it clear that education may have a general 
value through content as well as through form, and it 



162 THE PRINCIPLES OF EDUCATION 

suggests that for our present purpose the effects of 
education might better be divided into " specific " and 
"general " than into " formal" and "contentful." 

66. The Formal Values in the Schoolroom. Although 
the formal values are subordinate to the contents of 
studies and of life, it does not follow that they should 
never receive specific attention in the schoolroom. At 
times it becomes desirable, and even necessary, to 
center attention expressly upon them. We do this when- 
ever we emphasize ideals of conduct or teach students 
how to become self-helpful in study or in conducting 
investigations. The study lesson forms a good example. 
In this lesson the teacher makes an overt attempt to 
teach pupils how to study. This lesson is in place in 
every grade of school, and should be receiving more, 
rather than less, emphasis. It is quite as important to 
know how to study as what to study, even though 
the former is relative to the latter.* In the graduate 
department entire courses are sometimes given over to 
methods of investigation and all else is made subordi- 
nate to this end. Effective research requires accurate 
methods of collecting data and sound means of elaborat- 
ing them after they have been collected. 

Formal education is sometimes discountenanced alto- 
gether by modern educationists. This position can be 
taken only when the phrase is interpreted in the tradi- 
tional sense. But the channels of identical elements 
and of habit formation, through which the effects of 
education are undoubtedly in a measure generalized, 
may also be looked upon as formal, and if we grant 
that these channels should receive specific attention, we 
grant formal education to that extent. That these chan- 

^ Cf. McMurry, How to Study and Teaching How to Study. 



THE ELEMENTAL EDUCATIONAL VALUES 163 

Bels should receive attention is nowhere questioned. 
We have formal education not only in the study lesson, 
in teaching methods of research and in developing ideals, 
but also whenever we are developing technic in the 
manual arts. The musician gains in artistic skill by 
giving much of his time early and late to mechanical 
exercises, and the typist who first masters the mechani- 
cal side of his art, though slow at the start, gains most 
speed in the end. All exercises properly called training 
fall into this class. 

The ideals that are developed in school either in 
whole or in part are many. In most instances these are 
so obvious that a detailed consideration of them is 
unnecessary. Honesty, veracity, carefulness, neatness, 
industry, perseverance, obedience, etc., are appreciated 
by all teachers and they seek to impress them. They do 
this both by pointing them out and emphasizing their 
value, and by seeing to it that the pupils apply them 
in their conduct. Conscious control and habit forma- 
tion merge at this point and it is not always possible 
to tell which is in the ascendency, nor is this essential. 

67. Composite Ideals. There are a number of 
highly cherished effects of education united with inher- 
ent disposition that may be considered in connection 
with the development of ideals, but which might also be 
classified under. one or more of the intrinsic values, for 
they are the combined result of knowledge, training, and 
heredity. Among these are steadfastness^ open-mind- 
edness, disinterestedness, responsiveness, reliability, 
judiciousness, and poise. 

Granting a sound native equipment, the person who 
is in addition truly educated is steadfast in the pursuit 
of his calling, but he is at the same time ready to adopt 



164 THE PRINCIPLES OF EDUCATION 

improved ways of doing things and his mind is open to 
assimilate the advances made in the arts and the sci- 
ences. He is broad in his interests and is prejudiced 
against nothing that is worthy of human attention. He 
is unbiased ; and to the needs, successes, and failures of 
others he is responsive. Nothing human is foreign to 
him, and when he can be of assistance, his help does not 
fail. Society can count on him, for, being able to fore- 
see the consequences of his acts, he does promptly what 
he undertakes, and what he knows he cannot do he does 
not attempt. Purposely or carelessly he would incon- 
venience no one, nor would he knowingly be the cause 
of embarrassment to any seeker after truth. Lack of time 
and rush of business do not upset him, for he understands 
fundamental principles and so knows that the heavens 
wUl not fall. He is inwardly at ease, and his poise is 
a comfort to himself and a reassurance to all who 
come within the range of his influence. The handling 
of evidence in science, history, and art have made him 
judicious. He does not prejudge, but, awaiting all the 
evidence, he seeks to effect a cure or to offer an expla- 
nation, for he knows that knowledge is for the sake of 
control, not for condemnation. The stars that guide him 
are social and individual good, and to be of service is 
his ideal. 

EXERCISES 

1. Psychologically, what is an ideal ? Distinguish from an 
idea ; from a standard. 

2. How might the words " specific " and " general " as used 
on page 162 be defined ? 

3. Is Spencer necessarily right? "We may be quite sure 
that the acquirement of those classes of facts which are most 
useful in regulating conduct, involves a mental exercise best 



THE ELEMENTAL EDUCATIONAL VALUES 165 

fitted for strengthening the faculties. It would be utterly con- 
trary to the beautiful economy of Nature, if one kind of cul- 
ture were needed for the gaining of information and another 
kind were needed as a mental gymnastic." 

4. In addition to the values given in the three preceding 
chapters, Bagley gives another value which he calls the theO' 
retical. He says : " Items of knowledge that have little or 
no significance in the practical affairs of life, from either a 
utilitarian, a conventional, or a preparatory standpoint, may 
nevertheless be necessary to a system of knowledge. . . . 
It is hardly too much to say that three fourths of every sub- 
ject of instruction has absolutely no value when measured by 
the standards already discussed. A large part of its value is 
purely theoretical, — that is, it contributes to the coherence 
of the various facts and principles as knowledge" (4 : 233), 
Can you think of any facts and principles that have a purely 
theoretical value ? May this be a confusion of the value of 
organization with the value of knowledge itself ? 

Discuss the following quotations in the light of the princi- 
ples that we have studied. 

5. Mathematics gives exercise in widening and generalizing 
conceptions, in combining various results under one head, in 
making schematic arrangements and classifications. — J. W. 
A. Young. 

6. Comenius rightly defined the school as an officina 
humanitatis, or manufactory of men, and were this concep- 
tion generally prevalent, studies of the humane and culture 
type would regain the standing which they held in a less 
" practical " age. — W. H. Payne. 

7. They (the music teachers) make rhythm and harmony 
familiar to the souls of the boys, that they may grow more 
gentle, and graceful, and harmonious, and so be of service 
both in words and deeds ; for the whole of life man stands in 
need of grace and harmony. — Plato. 

8. The power to think well and the power to express well 
what we think are the two intellectual objects of a satisfac- 
tory secondary education. There are other intellectual objects 



166 THE PRINCIPLES OF EDUCATION 

besides these two ; they are very valuable, but they are sup- 
plementary, not fundamental. — A. W. West. 

9. The man who has gained the power to picture accurately 
the scenes of ancient Athens and Rome will find it possible 
to combine in imagination the elements of a business situa- 
tion in such a way as to seize opportunities and outflank his 
untrained competitors. 

10. Taken by itself it [knowledge] is a part, and not the 
most vital part, of education. Surely the essence of a liberal 
education consists in an attitude of mind, a familiarity with 
methods of thought, an ability to use information rather than 
a memory stocked with facts, however valuable such a store- 
house may be. — A. L. Lowell. 

IL Whoever he be that shall give his mind to the study 
of music in his youth, if he meet with a musical education 
proper for the forming and regulating of his inclinations, he 
will be sure to applaud and embrace that which is noble and 
generous, and to rebuke and blame the contrary, as well in 
other things as in what belongs to music. — Plutarch. 



CHAPTER X 

THE CURKICULUM 

68. Nature of the Curriculum. The curriculum of the 
school was briefly described in chapter iii as represent- 
ing an epitome of man's life. Its materials spring from 
all times and places, and consist of those traditions and 
achievements of the race that have proved and are still 
proving to be of value in increasing the efficiency and 
richness of both social and individual life. These tradi- 
tions and achievements are not necessarily all repre- 
sented in the curriculum, but only those need to be there 
that cannot be efficiently acquired in the round of one's 
daily life and amusements. The curriculum thus becomes 
one of the avenues to a balanced and relatively complete 
human life. It is a means to an end, and has from this 
point of view been called the gateway to the life of the 
species. 

The curriculum being a means to an end, it must neces- 
sarily vary as the end varies. Its content is determined by 
the life and environment for which it is to prepare. The 
curriculum of the Greeks corresponded to the life and 
ideals of the Greeks, that of the Romans to the life 
and ideals of the Romans, and that of the Renaissance to 
the life and ideals of the Renaissance. A monarchy cannot 
realize its ideals through the same curriculum as a demo- 
cracy, and the curricula of both must vary as their ideals, 
their social and industrial conditions, and the content of 
knowledge vary. But within this changing mass there 



168 THE PRINCIPLES OF EDUCATION 

is always a relatively stable core. A monarchy may re- 
main a monarchy, and a democracy a democracy, while 
in addition a number of fundamental aspects of human 
life have been everywhere much the same throughout 
history. It becomes the task of the school, therefore, 
to meet at the same time both varying and relatively 
permanent conditions. 

69. Its Scientific Determination. A scientific concep- 
tion of what the curriculum should contain, the manner 
in which emphasis should be apportioned, and the spirit 
in which it should be administered could be obtained only 
by an inductive study of the entire gamut of human life. 
This would reveal not only what people are actually 
using, but also what their aspirations and needs are, 
and education could then, perhaps, be fitted accurately 
to life. 

But this fitting of the elements of the curriculum to 
the elements of life would not be a simple process. Be- 
cause an activity held a large or a small place in life, it 
would not follow that it should hold a corresponding 
place in school. Many men are engaged in digging ditches, 
but ditch digging need not therefore have an assignment 
on the curriculum. This with many other activities can 
be learned more readily right out in life. On the other 
hand, the enjoyment of good literature, which is natu- 
rally relegated to the leisure moments of life, might be 
found to occupy only a small fraction even of this lei- 
sure time. But this would not measure the time it should 
have in the curriculum. Society is much concerned with 
the way in which people spend their leisure, whether 
they are increasing or diminishing their own efficiency 
and the peace and comfort of others, and therefore 
people must be definitely equipped for the noble disposi- 



THE CURRICULUM 169 

tion of leisure. It often requires hard application to de- 
velop the capacity for literary and artistic appreciation, 
and therefore these subjects, although they are for the 
leisure moments of life, cannot be left to the leisure mo- 
ments of the school. Just because the exigencies of life 
do not compel their acquisition, and baser enjoyments 
interfere with their spontaneous acquisition, they must 
be given an apparently disproportionate time allotment 
in the school. This makes it clear that the elements of 
the curriculum need not include all the aspects of life, 
and that they need not hold the same ratio to one 
another as their counterparts hold to one another in life. 

An inductive study of the environment with a view 
to determine accurately the content of the curriculum 
has never been made and there seems to be no press- 
ing need for it. The transition from one to the other is 
so complex that the curriculum would probably not be 
much influenced by such an inventory. At best we could 
expect suggestions for only slight modifications from this 
source, and it may be that the changes we are continu- 
ally making on the basis of casual observation and so- 
cial pressure are sufficiently exact. It would, however, 
be satisfying, and it might prove helpful, to have more 
accurate information than we now possess. But the best 
we can do now is to emphasize the fact that laymen as 
well as teachers should always bear in mind that the 
curriculum bears a close and vital relation to life as it 
now is, and that it must be modified as the demands 
of life are modified. 

The most fundamental criterion for the selection of 
subject-matter, then, is pertinence to present life. For 
a study to be admitted to the curriculum it must be clear 
that modern life demands it on the basis of one or more 



170 THE PRINCIPLES OF EDUCATION 

of the intrinsic values brought out in chapters vii and 
viii, and for a study to be retained it must likewise be 
clear that life stiU demands it for one or more of those 
values. 

The classroom teacher, however, is seldom directly con- 
cerned in the admission or the discarding of studies. The 
curriculum is a perpetual instrument that is on the scene 
when the individual teacher arrives, and its modifications 
are the result of a combination of influences representing 
both the school through its leaders and society through 
boards of education. It is to be expected that these 
leaders, especially those representing the school, are well 
grounded in educational theory, but the classroom teacher 
requires this information no less. He needs a knowledge 
of fundamental principles and values, in order to be able 
to cooperate with the leaders, and especially in order to 
make his own teaching intelligent and effective. The 
latter is probably the more important reason of the two. 
Unless a teacher knows in some detail the ends that are 
to be gained from a study, unless he knows the functions 
that it is to discharge in life, his teaching must neces- 
sarily be blind and mechanical. Both content and formal 
values must be definitely aimed for if they are to be maxi- 
mally attained. Merely teaching a subject without defi- 
nitely knowing why can scarcely be dignified by the name 
of teaching. 

Eecognizing the fact that the curriculum is a perpet- 
ual instrument, it does not devolve upon us to deter- 
mine it anew. We need only to gain a conception of its 
essential elements, the relations of these elements to one 
another, and their function in education and life. That 
being accomplished, we need also to consider briefly 
the principles underlying the administration of the cur- 



THE CURRICULUM 171 

riculum. To these topics this and the three following 
chapters are devoted. 

70. Origin of the Studies. Before entering into the 
classification of the studies, we may raise the question 
of why we have separate studies at all. How do we come 
to have mathematics, geography, history, the sciences, 
and the rest ? Is it because of characteristic and inherent 
differences in the facts themselves ? Is the motive for 
division a purely human one ? Or do both elements play 
a part ? 

It is said that all knowledge is one, in the sense of all 
being a part of the conscious experience of man, and that 
" it is only because we have different interests, or dif- 
ferent ends, that we sort out the material and label part 
of it science, part history, part geography, and so on " 
(16 : 19). These words clearly create the impression, 
whether intentionally or not, that the only cause for the 
different studies is the human one of motives or ends. 
Studies arise from the fact that we need to divide experi- 
ence for purposes of control. An undifferentiated mass 
would be unmanageable. 

This is true as far as it goes, but psychologically, as 
well as logically, it does not go far enough. We would 
not have different studies if we did not find it expedient 
to classify knowledge according to the use we wish to 
make of it, but we could not have different studies if 
there were not inherent differences in experience to begin 
with. It is evident that the data given by the differ- 
ent senses are different. Sounds are different from colors 
and tastes are different from touch. Similarly primary 
differences exist in the data from the same senses. The 
normal person would not confuse red and blue, or sour 
and sweet. These differences, and others like them, are 



172 THE PRINCIPLES OF EDUCATION 

fundamental and cannot be further explained. Conscious- 
ness is so organized as to be affected differently by the 
nerve impulses from the different senses, and of these 
differences it is immediately aware. If this were not true, 
we should not only be without our different departments 
of knowledge, but the possibility of all knowledge would 
be precluded. A homogeneous mass of experience could 
not become knowledge because one thing can be known 
only as being different from another. If, for example, 
there were but one color, we could not know color. The 
elements of our experience are not like the ocean, all of 
one sort, but more like the land, which is composed of 
sand, clay, gravel, granite, limestone, and the like. These 
original differences in experience enable us to sort them 
out and classify them. The motives for doing so come 
from the different ends and aims we have in life. These 
make the division of experience necessary in order that 
the ends of life may be more efficiently realized. The re- 
sults are the various subjects we find in the curriculum. 
Every subject of study that we have in school and 
in life centers about a characteristic and distinguishing 
core of thought or activity which is technically called a 
node. This node is used as a criterion for the selection of 
the data that make up the particular subject in hand. 
The node for physics is the phenomena of mass and force, 
for psychology the phenomena of consciousness, for 
medicine the pertinency of a datum to enter into the 
alleviation and cure of disease, for engineering the per- 
tinency to meet the physical needs and conveniences of 
life, and so on through the list. The selection of these 
nodes is obviously made possible by the original differ- 
ences in man's experience, and it is also obvious that 
the selection would not be made if man did not have a 



THE CURRICULUM 173 

variety of needs. The needs, and the consequent nodes, 
for physics and psychology mentioned aboye are again 
obviously different from those involved in medicine and 
engineering. Those of the former may be called theoret- 
ical or logical and those of the latter practical or arbi- 
trary. These two types of needs give us two groups of 
studies. One of these groups contains the pure sciences 
and all other subjects, such as history and literature, 
whose function it is to present and organize knowledge 
content, and the other contains the applied " sciences," 
such as engineering and medicine. The secondary sub- 
ject of geography also falls into the second group, 
although mathematical and physical geography should 
be classed as pure sciences. 

The thought nodes that serve as criteria for the se- 
lection of subject-matter and for the determination of 
the boundary lines in geography and in the applied 
sciences consist of the relatively arbitrary and practical 
requirements of life. These subjects start with defini- 
tions that begin and end in human purposes, and the 
limits of the subjects are correspondingly arbitrary. The 
logical relationships of the data of which these subjects 
are composed are not taken into consideration in deter- 
mining whether or not certain data should be included, 
but only their availability to meet some practical demand 
of life enters into such determination. This is well illus- 
trated by geography, which has been defined as the 
study of the earth as the home of man. This definition 
has a purely human basis, and the boundary lines of the 
subject cut across nearly all the other subjects in the 
curriculum. The subject includes a little of astronomy, 
geology, botany, zoology, ethnology, art, history, and 
economics. In fact, anything that has any bearing what- 



174 THE PRINCIPLES OF EDUCATION 

soever on " the interaction of the life of man and nature " 
may be legitimately included. The study of medicine 
similarly includes everything, no matter what its source, 
that bears on the alleviation and cure of disease ; the 
study of engineering includes whatever bears on " the 
art of directing the great sources of powers in nature 
for the use and convenience of man " ; and the study of 
education includes everything that bears on the aims 
and methods of instruction and training. 

After the data that bear on medicine, engineering, 
education, and the like have been selected, they may 
then be further organized into separate studies. In this 
organization the logical relationships of the data may 
and should receive consideration, but it may be ques- 
tioned that these relations should even then be primary. 
The principles of teaching, for example, may be organ- 
ized on the same logical basis as psychology and the 
subject may then be called educational psychology, but 
perhaps a better basis of organization would be to as- 
sume the knowledge of psychology entirely and to con- 
sider only the availability for schoolroom practice as the 
basis for the selection of data, and the nodes of school 
practice as the primary bases for the organization of 
these data. The principles of teaching would then be at 
liberty to take its data from biology, logic, the princi- 
ples of education, and other sources, as well as psy- 
chology ; and these data would be organized about such 
nodes as interest and attention, the types of lessons, and 
moral training. The relation of the nodes to one another 
should of course be logical, and the facts and principles 
within each node should also be logically arranged. 

In the pure sciences, and in all those other subjects 
that deal primarily with the organization of knowledge 



THE CURRICULUM 175 

content, and only secondarily with the use that is made 
of this content, the situation is quite different from 
what it is in the applied sciences. What one of these 
subjects shall include is determined, not by a node of 
practice, but by a node of logical or psychological simi- 
larity among the facts themselves; i. e., not by a node 
of expression, but by a node of impression. The various 
facts of zoology, for example, possess an inherent simi- 
larity; they all have a core of likeness in the way they 
impress us and in the way we naturally react to them, 
and this likeness serves to distinguish them from the 
facts of any other subject. The same thing is correspond- 
ingly true of botany, chemistry, history, and the rest. 
The criteria and relationships used here are said to be 
"logical" rather than arbitrary, which means that they 
rest on ultimate differences in experience as such. The 
needs that prompt the selection of the nodes are here 
primarily theoretical or intellectual. Noticing likenesses 
and differences in his experiences, or, considered objec- 
tively, in the facts about him, man instinctively sets to 
work to arrange and systematize these facts on the basis 
of their likenesses and differences. Utilitarian consid- 
erations need in no way be concerned in this process, 
although both the facts and the system may later be 
put to practical uses. 

When it is recognized that a study centers about a 
node of thought that is selected on the basis of a theo- 
retical or a practical need, it becomes evident that the 
separate studies do not form discrete units like islands 
in the sea, but that they form a continuum like the spec- 
trum. There are no sharp dividing lines between the 
studies, but they merge into one another very much as 
do the colors in the spectrum. Physics and chemistry, 



176 THE PRINCIPLES OF EDUCATION 

and physiology and psychology, come together just as 
do orange and red, and just as we can center our atten- 
tion between the orange and the red and get orange- 
red, so we can get physical chemistry and physiological 
psychology. 

All knowledge, then, may be classed together as 
falling under the head of conscious human experience. 
But as an undifferentiated mass of knowledge would 
be unmanageable, humanity has found it expedient to 
divide this experience into the various studies and exer- 
cises that we find in the curriculum. Humanity has been 
enabled to do this because of the inherent differences 
that exist in the elements of experience and upon which 
it may lay hold. The needs that prompt the division of 
experience into subjects are of two kinds, — theoretical 
and practical. The theoretical needs lead to the organi- 
zation of the fundamental subjects and sciences, while 
the practical needs lead to the derived and applied sci- 
ences. The subjects, when organized, are not discrete, 
but form a continuum similar to that of the spectrum. 

71. Classification of the Studies. Experience having 
been differentiated into the various elements of the cur- 
ricula that we find in elementary, secondary, and higher 
schools, our next task is to gather them together again. 
To the casual observer these elements appear to be in- 
definite in number and destitute of inherent relation- 
ships. This is, of course, not true, and in order to gain 
an efficient and manageable conception of them, we 
must classify them. This has been done in many differ- 
ent ways. 

William T. Harris divided the studies into five classes 
and spoke of the five windows of the soul from which 
education should draw the curtains. He said : — 



THE CURRICULUM 177 

The studies of the school fall naturally into these 
five groups : first, mathematics and physics ; second, bi- 
ology, including chiefly the plant and the animal ; third, 
literature and art, including chiefly the study of liter- 
ary works of art ; fourth, grammar and the technical and 
scientific study of language, leading to such branches 
as logic and psychology ; fifth, history and the study of 
sociological, political, and social institutions (33 : 323). 

Nicholas Murray Butler defines education as the 
gradual adjustment of the individual to the spiritual 
possessions of the race and then continues : — 

Those possessions may be variously classified, but 
they are certainly at least fivefold. The child is enti- 
tled to his scientific inheritance, to his literary inherit- 
ance, to his aesthetic inheritance, to his institutional 
inheritance, and to his religious inheritance (9 : 17). 

To this list, the writer understands, President Butler 
would now add the industrial inheritance. 

Another classification that is old and widespread, and 
that with slight variations has been much used by the 
Herbartians, is fundamentally twofold. This is ac- 
cepted by De Garmo, who, however, makes it threefold 
by adding an appendage. He says : — 

The broadest and most obvious distinction in the 
content of subject-matter of knowledge is that between 
(1) the facts and laws of physical nature, which, 
though observed and formulated by the mind, are not 
dependent upon the mind for their existence or validity, 
and (2) the linguistic, literary, artistic, and institu- 
tional constructions that have their genesis in the 
thoughts, feelings, and volitions of human kind. The 
first group pertains to nature, the second to man ; the 
first might be called the sciences (including mathemat- 
ics), the second the humanities. Both have from the 



*^ 178 THE PRINCIPLES OF EDUCATION 

earliest times been in varying degrees the subject- 
matter of education. 

So intimate and so important, however, have the 
interactions between the purely natural and the purely 
human become that a convenient threefold grouping 
may be proposed, as follows : — 

1. Natural sciences (including mathematics), or those 
that pertain solely to nature. 

2. Humanities, or those that pertain primarily to 
things purely human, such as language, aesthetics, poli- 
tics, ethics, religion, etc. 

3. Economic sciences, or those in which the laws of 
nature are applied by human volition to produce the 
conditions for the well-being of individuals, the multi- 
plication of populations, and the further development 
both of natural science and all that pertains to man 
as such. To this group we may assign not only econo- 
mics proper, but many technical branches arising from 
applied science (14 ; 45 f.). 

In this classification groups 1 and 2 are clear enough, 
but the same cannot be said for group 3. What De 
Garmo appears to mean by the " economic sciences " 
are the useful arts, or the industrial and other technical 
applications that are made of the sciences, which should 
certainly be provided for somewhere. Another weak 
point in this classification, which holds also in regard to 
the classifications made by Harris and by Butler, is the 
fact that form and content studies are not distinguished. 
All these points of weakness are logically covered by 
the following arrangement, for the fundamental scheme 
of which the writer is indebted to Dr. Elmer Ellsworth 
Brown, United States Commissioner of Education. For 
the manner in which the scheme is carried out, however, 
the writer alone is responsible. 



THE CURRICULUM 
72. The Curriculum Outlined. 



179 





CONTENT 


FORM 


EXPRESSION 




Language 


Mechanics of read- 


Reading 




Mother tongue 


ing and writing 


Speaking 




Foreign tongues 


Grammar 


Writing 




History and Con- 


Rhetoric 


Literary 




tent of Literature 




production 




History and Con- 


Scissor work 


Sketching 




tent of Art 


Color work 


Painting 




Paintings 


Drawing 


Sculpturing 


Man, or 


Sculpture 


Esthetics 


Architecture 


The 


Architecture 




Music 


Humanities 


Musical compo- 


Musical notation 


Vocal 




sitions 


and technic 


Instrumental 
Dancing 




The Dance 


Physical Culture 


Graceful carriage 




Social Science 




Gymnastic skill 




Political Qeog. 


Ethics 


Athletic sports 




Hist, and Civics 


Manual, Business, 


Social life 




Political Science 


and Industrial 


Citizenship 




Sociology 


Training 


Industrial and 




Commercial and 




Commercial 




Industrial Educ. 


Political Economy 
Mathematics 


Activities 




Physical Science 


Useful Arts 




Chemistry 


Arithmetic 


Applied Chem- 




Physics 


Algebra 


istry 




Astronomy 


Geometry 


Applied Me- 




Earth Sciences 


Trigonometry 


chanics 




Mathematical 


Calculus 


Applied Elec- 


"AT A 


and Physical 




tricity 


Nature, or 

The 
Natural 

Sciences 


Geography 




Applied Geo- 


Geology 
Biological Science 




logy 
Scientific Agri- 


Botany 


Laboratory 


culture 




Zoology 


technic 


Printing 




Bacteriology 




Medicine ^ 




Physiology 




Dentistry 




Mental Science 




Research 




General Psych. 


Logic 






Child Psychology 








Animal " 








Abnormal " 






TheUltimate, 


Hist, of Philosophy 




Religious life 


or 


Metaphysics 


Epistemology 


Conduct 


Philosophy 


Theology 







180 THE PRINCIPLES OF EDUCATION 

This arrangement, while fundamentally threefold, may 
also be looked upon as ninefold. The fundamental divi- 
sions are the horizontal ones into Man, Nature, and The 
Ultimate, or the Humanities, the Natural Sciences, and 
Philosophy. The natural sciences and the humanities 
have been ably characterized and distinguished in the 
quotation cited above from De Garmo. Philosophy, how- 
ever, cannot be logically placed in either of these groups 
because its subject-matter is the whole field of knowledge 
and action. It deals with ultimate structure, method, and 
meaning, and so belongs to a group by itself, a group 
that sums up the final essence of the other two groups. 

The vertical divisions are less fundamental, although 
for the school no less significant, than the horizontal, and 
are also threefold in final analysis. The terms assigned 
to them are Content, Form, and Expression. An exam- 
ination of the separate divisions discloses their nature 
and distinctions better than a description can do. 

73. Form and Content Distinguished. Form and con- 
tent have long been distinguished. " Content " refers to 
those aspects of knowledge that are immediately valued^ 
in life. It includes the facts and phenomena of nature- 
"and life as they are presented to us without ourselves 
taking part in their production. In physics we have the 
phenomena of mass, heat, light, electricity, and radio- 
activity; in chemistry, the elements and their charac- 
teristic behavior ; in botany, the plants ; in zoology, the 
animals ; in psychology, consciousness ; in history, the 
facts and events of the past ; and so on. These facts and 
phenomena comprise the content of the several subjects 
in the first column, which might in a descriptive way at 
least be studied without reference to the subjects in the 
other two columns. 



THE CURRICULUM 181 

The " form " subjects may be described as the instru- 
ments by means of which content is investigated, pre- 
cisely described, systematized, and managed. The relation 
of mathematics and physics forms an excellent illustra- 
tion. Physics as a mere descriptive science would be quite 
unwieldy and would amount to little, but in the garb of 
mathematics it becomes systematic, precisely intelligible, 
manageable, and serviceable; and what mathematics does 
for physics, it does in a greater or less degree for all the 
other sciences, those pertaining to man as well as those 
pertaining to nature. Grammar and rhetoric are the form 
of language and literature. Language cannot well be de- 
scribed and criticised without them. -Esthetics sets forth 
the form or essential qualities of the beautiful in the 
fine arts, ethics of the good in character and conduct, 
and logic of the true in knowledge. A certain amount of 
technic is needed in the study of all the sciences, espe- 
cially in the biological, and it is of assistance also in 
comprehending the facts of music and of art. But technic 
bears on the whole a more vital relation to the expres- 
sive activities in the third column than to the content 
subjects in the first. It should be noted, however, that 
all the form studies face both ways, touching content as 
well as expression. They are needed in carrying forward 
the activities of life no less than in acquiring and sys- 
tematizing knowledge. In fact, they form the connecting 
link between content and expression, making both the 
possession and the application of knowledge possible. 
Looking at the curriculum in this unified way, we have 
on the left-hand si(Je theory^ and on the right-hand side 
jpractice. 

74. The Expression Subjects. Under the head of 
" expression " are grouped all those subjects that may be 



182 THE PRINCIPLES OF EDUCATION 

characterized as comprising the basal activities of life. 
They comprise what we ourselves do, and in this respect 
are the direct opposites to the content studies. These ac- 
tivities, although they antedate both of the other groups 
of subjects in time, have but recently been admitted to 
respectful membership in the curriculum. The reasons 
for this are at least threefold, being technological, social, 
and psychological, all of which are intimately interwoven. 
Socially, it has not hitherto been necessary to provide for 
these subjects in school because it was possible to ac- 
quire them either incidentally or by means of the appren- 
tice system in life. The dentist learned his calling in the 
office, the engineer in the shop or field, the accountant at 
the desk, and the farmer on the farm. But the advance 
of technical or scientific knowledge has transformed all 
these callings into professions resting upon consistent 
theory, so that it has become quite impossible to acquire 
them in an incidental way in life. The systematic in- 
struction demanded by this technical basis is reinforced 
by social competition, which still further precludes hap- 
hazard methods. The unsystematically trained worker 
cannot successfully compete with the worker that is sys- 
tematically trained. Furthermore, society no longer 
trusts him and has in many cases excluded him by 
means of legislative enactment. 

On the more purely social side two other observations 
should be made. It is being recognized more and more 
(1) that insight into vocational and artistic activities 
is educative, in the sense of being socializing and liber- 
alizing, and (2) that education for citizenship includes 
the development of the power to be economically pro- 
ductive. It used to be assumed that the school had dis- 
charged its function in preparing for citizenship when it 



THE CURRICULUM 183 

had prepared the individual to cast an intelligent ballot, 
to render honest service in holding office, and to dis- 
charge all other duties of citizenship in an enlightened 
and trustworthy manner. But this is now no longer 
held to be sufficient. The most fundamental require- 
ment of all in good citizenship is productive labor, and 
the burden of meeting this requirement is being placed 
more and more upon the school. So long as education was 
chiefly for the upper and professional classes, who looked 
down upon manual labor, vocational activities were 
looked upon as being outside the pale of education. But 
with the advance of social democracy this is gradually 
changing. It is being seen that all necessary labor is 
honorable, and that society through the school has a duty 
toward all its members, and not only toward those in 
the professions. Adjustment to life includes the ability 
to earn a livelihood, and whenever this ability can be 
conferred most effectively by the school it becomes the 
function of the school to confer it. 

The socializing and liberalizing value of the expres- 
sive activities is now no longer questioned. It is even 
recognized that some participation in these activities 
constitutes an essential part of a liberal education, but 
social organization has become so complex, and special- 
ization has been carried to such an extreme, that most 
people would have to remain permanently ignorant of 
nearly all of them unless they were taught in school. 
Comparatively few of them can now be incidentally 
picked up in the home and the neighborhood, as was 
still true only a few decades ago, and they must conse- 
quently be included in the curriculum. 

On the psychological side we are realizing more and 
more that expression is quite as essential as impression 



184 THE PRINCIPLES OF EDUCATION 

in the acquisition of knowledge. Consciousness has a 
motor as well as a sensory side, and the school must take 
both into account if the knowledge it imparts is to be 
complete. The test of knowing is doing, and the doing 
reacts on the knowing, both deepening the impression 
and giving it genuine meaning. In practical matters 
this has perhaps always been realized. Both Plato and 
Aristotle again and again make the observation that 
for a person to become an appreciative and reliable 
judge in any art, such as music or painting, it is neces- 
sary for him to be in some degree a performer. In the 
world at large probably a disproportionate amount of 
importance has always been attached to experience as 
compared with knowledge of theory, but in the school 
the reverse has been true. In neither case, however, has 
the intimate psychological relation of the two been recog- 
nized till recently, a change to which experimental psy- 
chological investigations have contributed no small share. 
But it is now beginning to be seen that all theory exists 
for the sake of practice, without which it is empty, and 
that practice without theory is relatively blind and 
untrustworthy. This speaks emphatically for the use 
of the social activities in education, not merely for voca- 
tional reasons, but for educational purposes as well. 
This may be done in part by bringing these activities 
into the school, and in part by taking the school to the 
activities by means of the school excursion. 

EXERCISES 

Discuss the following classifications of studies. 

1. The elements in the spiritual environment are three in 
number. The reason for this number lies in the nature of 
mind. . . . The mind knows, and feels, and wills. . . . Con- 



THE CURRICULUM 



185 



sequently the three elements of the spiritual environment are 
the intellectual, what is known ; the emotional, what is felt ; 
and the volitional, what is willed. 

Physics 
Geology 
Mineralogy 
' Inorganic ] Geography 

Physiography 
Chemistry 
Astronomy 
' Matter J { Biology 

Botany 
Zoology 
Physiology 
Organic - Anatomy 

Anthropology 
Ethnology 
Sociology 
Economics 
' Subjective Psychology 
f Logic 
. Mind I Metaphysics 

-(Esthetics 
Ethics 
Language 
Mathematics 



' Sciences 



The Spiritual 
Environment 
of the pupil 



Arts 



Volitions 



. Objective 

Architecture 
Sculpture 
Painting 
Music 
Literature 
_ Religion 
History 
Constitutions 
Law 
Morals 

— H. H. HORNE. 

2. (a) Studies dealing with space and time — mathemat- 
ics; (b) sciences of matter — physics, chemistry, biology, 
etc. ; (c) historical studies — law, language, arts, trades ; 
(d) psychological studies — ethics, aesthetics, mental philoso- 
phy; (e) religious studies — theology and natural religion. 
— T. Hill. 

3. I. The Formal Studies -- mathematics and language 



186 THE PRINCIPLES OF EDUCATION 

(grammar and logic) ; II. Inorganic sciences ; III. Organic 
sciences ; IV. Sciences of mind — psychology, ethics, literary- 
art, philosophy ; V. Social sciences — literature, history, eco* 
nomics, political science, sociology. — George E. Vinceniv 

COLLATERAL READING 

De Garmo, Principles of Secondary Education, I, 44-51. 

Harris, Psychologic Foundations of Education, 321-341. 

HoRNE, Philosophy of Education, 101-102. 

Monroe, Text-Book, 739-759. 

Vincent, Social Mind and Education, 115-135. 



CHAPTER XI 

THE EDUCATIONAL VALUE OF THE HUMANITIES 

75. Meaning of " Subject " ; Values Specific. In 
considering the educational value of the several sub- 
jects we must recur to the outline of the curriculum on 
page 179. In evaluating a subject it should be looked 
upon as extending all the way across the page, as im- 
plicating content, form, and expression. Only in this 
way can its full significance be obtained. The form 
subjects have almost no significance by themselves, but 
derive their value from the content and the expression 
subjects. The content subjects, too, cannot stand alone. 
They need the form subjects to give them shape, and 
their fundamental significance is revealed only by their 
expression in life. The expressive activities in turn 
depend on form and content, especially the latter, for 
their illumination. We are dealing here with a three- 
fold unity, any one aspect of which may be legitimately 
emphasized at the expense of the others, but which can 
never be legitimately isolated from them. 

In assigning educational values to a subject, careful 
discrimination should be used. Specialists, and some- 
times others also, often indiscriminately assign to one 
subject every value in the list. If a person could be- 
lieve them, he should be able to get a liberal education 
and a noble and upright character from pursuing singly 
almost any one of the subjects. This indicates a crude- 
ness on the part of educational writers that is unpar- 



188 THE PRINCIPLES OF EDUCATION 

donable. So treated, educational values do not discrim- 
inate and their purpose is defeated. The truth is that 
one subject usually has but a few main values which 
may be specifically designated. Unless they are so des- 
ignated, little or nothing is accomplished. 

76. The Mother Tongue. The fundamental aim in 
teaching the mother tongue is the practical one of read- 
ing, writing, and speaking. The subject is the one most 
basic and most universally needed in the curriculum. It 
is a tool that is needed in all the other subjects and every 
day in life. This fact is receiving recognition in mod- 
ern educational practice, for a large amount of time is 
being given to the mother tongue, both in the elemen- 
tary and in the secondary schools. In the elementary 
school it is represented by reading, spelling, composi- 
tion, and grammar ; and in the high school by grammar, 
rhetoric, and composition. In both schools the work cul- 
minates in literature, which, however, cannot strictly be 
classed as an aspect of the mother tongue. It belongs 
logically in the group of the fine arts. 

Under content the mother tongue is represented by 
the study of idiomatic expressions and by the meaning 
and usage of words ; under form it is represented by 
the mechanics of reading and writing, and by spelling, 
grammar, and rhetoric ; and under expression by read- 
ing and by oral and written composition. 

Spelling, pronunciation, and the grammatical cor- 
rectness of speech and writing are sometimes said to 
have only the index aspect of the conventional value. 
They have this value in a marked degree, for the per- 
son of incorrect language and spelling is very generally 
classed as crude and uncultured, but they have other 
values as well. They promote social efficiency through 



EDUCATIONAL VALUE OF THE HUMANITIES 189 

having the practical value. The person who is master 
of expression can tell what he has to say without waste, 
and those who read or listen can readily understand. 
The incorrect speaker or writer, on the other hand, is 
not so readily understood, and his errors distract the 
attention of the hstener or reader from the content to 
the form. Elegant language, which, however, is more 
a gift than an acquisition, is pleasing and so has the 
ornamental value. 

The opinions regarding the educational value of gram- 
mar are unsettled, if not chaotic. Practically every 
value in the category has been assigned to it, with 
special emphasis on the formal values of discrimination, 
and exact, logical thinking. But if our analysis has 
been correct, the formal values never enter in determin- 
ing the admission of a subject to the curriculum and 
so should not be considered here. They belong to the 
sphere of method. A person who is taught grammar 
properly will necessarily have to discriminate and think 
logically ; but if there were no intrinsic reasons for 
teaching grammar, he could well rely for this training 
on some other subjects that are intrinsically valuable. 
Proper methods of teaching always imply this training ; 
and as the formal values are in the main but slightly 
generalized, no subject has any special preeminence in 
them. 

Grammar being a form subject, one would expect it 
to have the preparatory value and thus be of assistance 
in ministering to the interpretation of language and to 
the correctness of expression. These features, especially 
the second, are now frequently denied, but they may 
well be reconsidered. We seldom consciously analyze 
an English sentence in order to determine its mean- 



190 THE PRINCIPLES OF EDUCATION 

ing, but we do sometimes, and in reading a foreign 
language we frequently have to resort to analysis. In 
correcting inaccuracies of expression, both in speech 
and in writing, grammar forms the common language 
between teacher and pupil. It is the only logical means 
of exact criticism and commendation that the teacher 
has, and for the individual it forms a similar means of 
self-criticism. Without it the individual would be quite 
helpless in improving his own speech, and especially in 
improving what he has written. He would have only 
the sound, but no definite rules to guide him. It is true, 
of course, that correct expression does not immediately 
and easily follow the knowledge of the error. This is 
because expression involves the factor of habit. In ordi- 
nary speaking and writing we think the thought, and 
let habit take care of the selection of the words we use. 
But habit may be reconstructed, and in this process 
knowledge is a fundamental requirement. 

In learning a foreign language, grammar is of un- 
doubted instrumental value, even when the method of 
instruction is fundamentally inductive. It systematizes 
what has been learned, assists in expression, and is 
frequently the key to the meaning of what is read. 

For the general student the preparatory value is the 
chief one that grammar has, but through its relation 
to language it shares also in the conventional value. 
Because it imparts a scientific conception of language 
structure, it possesses the liberalizing value ; and this 
may be deeply significant for the scholar. The senti- 
mental value of grammatical study, although existing 
for a few, is quite negligible. 

The educational value of rhetoric is similar to that of 
grammar. One applies to the agreement and correct 



EDUCATIONAL VALUE OF THE HUMANITIES 191 

construction of words, and the other to the effective 
arrangement of words in sentences, and to the forms of 
discourse. The value of both consists primarily in aid- 
ing the effectiveness of expression, and secondarily in 
ministering to the completeness of the knowledge of 
one's immediate environment. 

77. Literature. While literature should logically be 
discussed in connection with the fine arts, we shall con- 
sider it here because of an observation that should be 
made regarding the teaching of ancient literature. This 
observation can be made better before than after taking 
up the educational value of the ancient languages. 

Literature includes on the side of content, the study 
and appreciation of literary productions ; on the side 
of form, grammar, rhetoric, and prosody ; and on the 
side of expression, literary production. This production 
may, however, vary in all degrees of pretentiousness. A 
letter written for the enjoyment of a friend would meet 
the criterion of literary expression. 

The educational values of literature were used in 
chapters vii and viii to illustrate the moral and the 
sentimental values, and so have already received inci- 
dental discussion. We pointed out that literature makes I 
an especial appeal to the aesthetic, comic, moral, and 
social sentiments. We read literature for amusement, 
recreation, and edification, but frequently also for the 
information that it imparts. This information gives an 
insight into the thought-life and aspirations of mankind, 
and so is distinctly liberalizing, while the appeal that 
literature makes to the moral and social feelings gives 
the subject a high rank as a socializing influence. All 
these values are of course not to be looked for in every '■, 
literary production. The aesthetic value is found most j 



192 THE PRINCIPLES OF EDUCATION 

often in poetry, but is by no means restricted to it, 
while the socializing value is found most often in 
prose, such as the novel and the short story. The 
essay presumably takes highest rank in the liberalizing 
value, but all literary productions, especially when 
studied historically, share in this value. 

American and English literature have a large and 
assured place in the curriculum, and so need no special 
assistance ; but a word should be said for reading the 
ancient literatures in translation. These literatures are 
of great and unquestioned value, and we need to conserve 
them in modern life. It used to be, held, and still is in 
some quarters, that the ancient languages should intro- 
duce the student to ancient culture, but this is no longer 
tenable. Scarcely one in a thousand of those who study 
these languages carries the work far enough to get any- 
thing worth mentioning of the ancient culture. It is 
very near the truth to say that only those who become 
specialists in these languages do ; and if we class high 
school teachers of Latin and Greek as specialists, even 
these cannot all be included. We have, however, been 
depending on this source for the dissemination of an- 
cient culture, and our results have been pitiful in their 
meagerness. We now possess excellent translations of 
the ancient writers, but they are seldom systematically 
used in the literature class. It was the writer's good 
fortune, some years ago, to be given a course of seventy- 
five hours in both Greek and Latin literature under 
Professor W. J. Brier at the Kiver Falls, Wisconsin, 
State Normal School. The course preceded the work in 
English and American literature, for which it was meant 
to be preparatory, but it proved to possess more than 
the preparatory value. We read and discussed the exist- 



EDUCATIONAL VALUE OF THE HUMANITIES 193 

ing masterpieces of nearly all the Greek and Latin lit- 
erary writers, and the course still stands out in the 
writer's mind because of its unique and general worth. 
The results of three or four years he devoted to Latin 
seem insignificant in comparison, and this is the testi- 
mony of others who have had similar experience.^ 

The chief objection usually offered to a course of 
this kind is that much is lost in the process of transla- 
tion. It cannot be denied that something is lost, but 
probably less than the conservatives would have us think. 
We have our Bible in English, and we think that it is 
very good and quite true to the original. Luther's 
translation of the Bible is looked upon as a faithful 
masterpiece, and the Germans are prone to think that 
their Shakespeare is not a bit inferior to ours. The 
truth is that translation alters the form only, leaving 
the content and spirit, which are the most valuable 
parts, practically unchanged. The poetic spirit of Plato 
as compared with Aristotle is quite as evident in a good 
translation as in the original. k 

78. Foreign Languages. The foreign languages may \ 
be divided into two groups, — the ancient and the 
modern. For the general student the former includes 
Greek and Latin and the latter German, French, and 
sometimes Spanish. 

It is generally admitted that a liberal education is 
incomplete without the study of at least one foreign 
language. Because of the comparative nature of know- 
ledge, it is true, as Goethe said, that " A man who 
knows only his own language does not even know that." 
He has neither the motive for, nor the means of becom- 
ing conscious of what language, as such, really is. The 

^ See for example, Educational Beview, xxziii, 480. 



194 THE PRINCIPLES OF EDUCATION 

language element in his environment is not fully ap- 
preciated, and cannot be, till the contrast furnished 
by another tongue makes it evident. This gain from 
language study is usually called the development of the 
language consciousness and is liberalizing in its nature. 
It implies an appreciation of what language really is, 
as regards pronunciation, vocabulary, and grammatical 
form, which cannot be adequately gained by studying 
the mother tongue only. 

The liberalizing value of language study is no doubt 
rightly put first. Either an ancient or a modern lan- 
guage wiU satisfy this demand, but for the general 
student a modern language might also prove of practi- 
cal value, while an ancient one would be far less likely 
to do so. As a reading knowledge of the modern lan- 
guages is more readily acquired than of the ancient, 
it may not be too much to expect that this know- 
ledge will lead the student into the literatures of these 
languages. Some acquaintance with these literatures is 
naturally acquired in the classroom, but the number of 
students who continue their reading beyond the class*- 
room into life is apparently but a small fraction of the 
whole. Still, it may not be much smaller than the 
fraction of the English literature class that continues to 
read classic English literature. For service in travel it 
would indeed be well to know at least French and Ger- 
man. It is taken for granted, of course, that the lan- 
guage would be pursued long enough to be of service 
in reading and speaking. The conventional motive for 
language study, especially Latin and French, is still 
large and should no doubt be curtailed. 

Much is usually made of the point that a foreign 
language, especially Latin, gives a knowledge of root- 



EDUCATIONAL VALUE OF THE HUMANITIES 195 

words, prefixes, and suffixes, and so helps in the mastery 
of the mother tongue. This is beyond question an inci- 
dental gain worth mentioning, but it is an incidental 
gain only. No one would put a foreign language into 
the curriculum solely or chiefly for this reason. An equal 
amount of time given to the mother tongue directly 
would be far more effective in this respect. The gain is 
also obtained from a modern language, but in a some- 
what less degree than from Latin. The old-fashioned 
" word analysis " need not be despised in this connec- 
tion. 

Language study may be, and frequently is, made an 
effective indirect means of gaining an insight into the 
geography, history, industries, customs, and culture of 
the people whose language is being studied. The texts 
pursued by the class naturally give some of this informa- 
tion, but reference is made here to the information gained 
from courses outside of the immediate class work. A class 
studying German, for example, is in the proper psycho- 
logical attitude to study broadly about the Germans and 
their country, and teachers are wisely taking advantage 
of this opportunity. The information gained has the 
social and liberal values, but these values as here realized 
cannot be ascribed to the language study itself. The 
language study serves merely as an introduction to them, 
but the introduction is quite an indispensable one. 

Translating the lesson in the classroom is a question 
of method, and so does not belong here ; but when it is 
claimed that composition is taught best by means of 
translation and that training in English as the result of 
careful translation of Latin is the first and most impor- 
tant reason for studying Latin, ^ it becomes a question of 

^ See above, pp. 154-155. 



196 THE PRINCIPLES OF EDUCATION 

aim. If this were true, it would be a sad commentary on 
our teachers of English, but there are few who will be- 
lieve it. From the standpoint of method, as illumined 
by psychology and experience, it may be remarked that 
translation is beginning to be discountenanced altogether. 
The best teachers are reducing it to a minimum, espe- 
cially in the modern languages, and many teachers of 
the ancient languages are also discrediting it. It is 
forbidden by the principle of habit. When translation 
is used, the habit of gaining the thought indirectly is 
formed, and this habit must later be broken, which is a 
hard and sometimes an impossible task. The aim should 
be to have the student get the thought from the original 
directly, and not indirectly through the mother tongue. 
We have so far confined our remarks to the general 
student. All the values mentioned apply also to scholars 
and specialists, but for them the emphasis must be modi- 
fied. The practical value looms much larger here. Every 
scholar needs both French and German as working 
tools, and many need in addition one or more of the 
following : Spanish, Italian, Latin, Greek, Hebrew, and 
Sanskrit. If it is granted that ancient culture should be 
disseminated through translations, the general student 
may not need an ancient language, but this does not 
mean that these languages no longer require a place in 
the curriculum ; by no means. Society still needs them, 
and probably always will. It needs them in the hands of 
all those specialists whose work brings them into vital 
contact with ancient culture and civilization. Our know- 
ledge must be advanced continually along these lines, 
and every generation must have ancient life reinter- 
preted for it in the light of all that is new. For this 
an exact and first-hand knowledge of the language con- 



EDUCATIONAL VALUE OF THE HUIVIANITIES 197 

cerned is required. The research student must always 
come in touch with sources as nearly first hand as pos- 
sible, and can never be satisfied with translations. 

The specialists who need one or more of the ancient 
languages are teachers of language, archaeologists, ancient 
and European historians, historians of philosophy, special- 
ists in Roman law, and clergymen. For teachers of the 
ancient languages some knowledge of Sanskrit, and for 
teachers of the modern languages both Latin and Greek 
are desirable. The needs of the archaeologist and historian 
must be determined by their special fields. The histo- 
rian of philosophy needs Greek and Latin, and if he in- 
cludes the lore of the East within his domain, he needs 
Sanskrit as well. The specialist in Roman law needs 
Latin, but for the practicing lawyer, history, and social 
and economic science are so much more important that 
Latin sinks into insignificance. For the clergyman 
Hebrew, Latin, and Greek are naturally all desirable, 
but he cannot afford to sacrifice natural and social 
science in their behalf. There should, however, be time 
for both. The physician is intentionally excluded from 
this list. He may take Greek and Latin for cultural and 
conventional reasons, but he does not need them directly 
in his profession. 

79. The Fine Arts. The next group of subjects in our 
outline of the curriculum may be designated the fine 
arts. In addition to literature, this group contains on 
the content side music, painting, sculpture, architecture, 
and the dance. By the last is of course meant the dance 
in history as a form of aesthetic expression. On the form 
side we have musical notation and technic, scissor work, 
color work, drawing, and the principle of aesthetics. From 
some points of view, physical culture also belongs here. 



198 THE PRINCIPLES OF EDUCATION 

Under expression we have the execution of the various ac- 
tivities enumerated, both in school and in life. It includes 
musical accomplishment, sketching, painting, sculptur- 
ing, the profession of architecture, and the various aes- 
thetic and skillful physical achievements. 

This entire group of studies is still poorly organized 
from an educational standpoint. The Athenians gave 
systematic attention to the fine arts and obtained 
splendid results, but with the decay of their civiliza- 
tion they went into eclipse, from which they have not 
yet fully emerged. Their unique worth in education 
and life is now recognized again, and it is only a mat- 
ter of time when they will have regained their proper 
place in the schools. A serious difficulty encountered is 
the task of fitting these arts vitally into our present 
school machinery. Their teaching needs necessarily 
to be accompanied by various expressive activities, which 
fit poorly into our present school furniture and school 
organization, and for the effective teaching of the con- 
tent side of the space and form arts, galleries and mu- 
seums are all but indispensable. But even when these 
limitations are recognized, more could no doubt be ac- 
complished than is being done at present. We need to 
appreciate the ends and aims of art more distinctly and 
to get teachers equipped with pedagogical training to 
carry them out. A mere artist is likely to be a poor 
teacher in this field from an educational point of view. 
We need first of all to recognize here the three aspects 
of content, form, and expression. Artists usually get lost 
in the third, teachers in the second, and the first is sel- 
dom given any systematic attention in the school, except 
in one course, — the college course in the history of art. 

It is generally recognized that the aim in teaching 



EDUCATIONAL VALUE OF THE HUIVIANITIES 199 

the fine arts, so far as the elementary and the secondary- 
schools are concerned, is not to produce artists, but to 
develop the appreciation of painting, sculpture, and 
architecture ; to teacJi national, folk, and other simple 
songs for group singing ; and to develop sulticient skill 
in drawing to use as a mode of expression. A sketch is 
frequently a more effective mode of conveying thought 
than either spoken or written words, and everybody 
can find use for it. Then, too, this amount of skill in 
drawing is needed for the appreciation of the space arts. 
Color work is also needed for this purpose and in many 
other phases of life. In music the school at present can 
do little more than teach notation and group songs, but 
in both of these respects America is behind the coun- 
tries of continental Europe. Song is everywhere a 
matchless means of recreation and emotional expression, 
and deserves a conspicuous and permanent place in life. 
Solo work and instrumental music may perhaps always 
be left to private instruction. 

While in most of the school subjects form and con- 
tent are given disproportionate attention, in the art sub- 
jects content is relatively neglected and only form and 
expression are taught. Although the time given to the 
latter cannot be reduced, the results achieved are left 
comparatively empty without giving more attention to 
content. Just as in literature we do not aim to produce 
men of letters but to give a knowledge of content and de- 
velopment for the sake of life and appreciation, so in the 
fine arts we should aim primarily for general art appre- 
ciation, so that life may be enriched, rather than for the 
production of artists. But art cannot be intelligently 
appreciated unless it is known through study any more 
than can literature. The knowledge required must be 



200 THE PRINCIPLES OF EDUCATION 

given in courses especially devoted to content. This will 
prove somewhat more difficult here than in literature, 
which needs only to be read and read about, but the 
difficulties are being successfully met in a number of 
places. In music the great masters and their master- 
pieces are studied about just as they are in literature, 
but in place of reading the masterpieces, they are in- 
terpreted for the class by means of the piano, organ, 
orchestra, or song. In this way music may become 
known just as literature is known, and with a corre- 
sponding gain in appreciation. 

Painting, sculpture, and architecture should also be 
studied historically, and visits to galleries and museums 
must replace the recitals or the reading. When this is 
impossible, recourse must be had to the stereopticon, 
photographs, and other copies. Systematic texts, illus- 
trated where possible, should be in the hands of the class 
in all these subjects. The work may be effectively sum- 
marized in the college by a course in the principles of 
aesthetics. 

The historical aspect of the dance may perhaps be 
studied in connection with music, but in the main the 
aim in physical culture must center in the expressive 
activities of dancing, carriage, gymnastic feats, and ath- 
letic sports, which have social and aesthetic values. Health 
and recreation are best attained when aimed for indi- 
rectly. The attention must center in the activity rather 
than in the result, and must be accompanied by interest 
and enthusiasm to be maximally beneficial. 

Physical culture is another subject that is not given 
its proper share of attention in modern education. We 
make much of inter-collegiate athletics, but systematic 
physical education is almost unknown, especially in the 



EDUCATIONAL VALUE OF THE HUMANITIES 201 

elementary and secondary schools, where it would give 
the best results. The foundations for physical grace, skill, 
and health should be laid early, when the bones and 
muscles are plastic and growing. 

80. The Social Sciences. The next sub-group under 
the humanities may be styled the social sciences. This 
group includes on the side of content, political geography, 
history, civics, political science, sociology, and commercial 
and industrial education ; on the side of form, ethics, 
manual and industrial training, and political economy ; 
and on the side of expression, the various aspects of 
social, political, industrial, and commercial life. With 
the exception of political geography, history, and ethics, 
all these subjects are new recruits in the curriculum, 
and in their modern interpretation, all may be called 
new. Industrial training and education are indeed very 
new, being only now at the point of gaining admission. 

The chief value possessed by these subjects is natu- 
rally the social value, but they possess also the practi- 
cal and liberalizing values in a high degree. They are 
central in adjusting man to his social environment. They 
are indeed so fundamental that many would confine 
the aim of education to their sphere and make all the 
other subjects tributary. While this is unjustifiable, 
their high and indispensable value in modern life and 
education cannot be gainsaid, and they are unquestion- 
ably destined to occupy even a larger place in the cur- 
riculum than they now have. They are of especial service 
to the clergy, legislators, judicial and executive officers, 
and all others who have a directing influence on society ; 
but they are of general service also in supplying the 
basis for intelligent and sympathetic social cooperation. 

Geography is a secondary subject, deriving its data 



202 THE PRINCIPLES OF EDUCATION 

from many quarters, and so cannot be rigidly classified, 
but its fundamental point of view is social, and it there- 
fore belongs in this group. Its aim is to acquaint man 
with the earth as the scene of his varied activities, and 
it therefore possesses the preparatory, conventional, 
socializing, and liberalizing values in a high degree. 
Y History may be said^put the third dimension into 
V the field of knowledge^ It gives it depth by extending it 
\backward in time, which is a liberalizing effect.^In rela- 
tion to the other subjects history is chiefly preparatory. 
JLanguage, literature, art, and philosophy, and certain 
aspects even of the sciences, cannot be fully understood 
without history. But the chief value of history is the 
sipcial. Says Dewey : — 

The evils of the present industrial and political situ- 
ation, on the ethical side, are not due so much to actual 
perverseness on the part of individuals concerned, nor 
to mere ignorance of what constitutes the ordinary 
virtues (such as honesty, industry, purity, etc.), as to 
inability to appreciate the social environment in which 
we live. It is tremendously complex and confused. 
Only a mind trained to grasp social situations, and to 
reduce them to their simpler and typical elements, can 
get sufficient hold on the realities of this life to see 
what sort of action, critical and constructive, it really 
demands. Most people are left at the mercy of tradi- 
tion, impulse, or the appeals of those who have special 
and class interests to serve. In relation to this highly 
complicated social environment, training for citizenship 
is formal and nominal unless it develops the power of 
observation, analysis, and inference with respect to what 
makes up a social situation and the agencies through 
which it is modified. Because history rightly taught 
is the chief instrumentality for accomplishing this, it 
has an ultimate ethical value (16 : 23). 



EDUCATIONAL VALUE OF THE HUMANITIES 203 

History gives social insight by revealing both the 
genesis and structure of the social order and the condi- 
tions of social advance. Present social life is so complex 
that its elements cannot be grasped when approached 
directly. : These elements must be approached historically 
and traced from their inception, if their real significance 
is to be appreciated. From Greece we get the significance 
of art and individual initiative, from Rome the princi- 
ples of political organization, from Palestine the heart 
of our moral and religious life, and from the Middle 
Ages many minor customs and practices. Anthropology, 
which may be regarded as a phase of history, carries 
this analysis still farther back, giving us the initial 
development of the very elements of civilization. 

The conditions of social progress can be apprehended 
directly still less. Although the causes of advances and 
retrogressions are complex, they may in a measure be 
ferreted out and made available for the present and the 
future. Types of the influences involved here are the 
attitude toward individual initiative ; toward freedom 
of the press, speech, and belief ; toward civic and per- 
sonal righteousness ; and the effects of inventions, of 
international commerce, and of the dissemination of ed- 
ucation. Nations, like individuals, must live according 
to* the principles of enlightenment and justice, and both 
this fact and the principles involved can be appreciated 
fully only through the study of history. 

The primary value of civics is the socially practical 
value. Intelligent citizenship depends upon it quite as 
much as upon history. When rightly taught it should 
lead to intelligent voting and the upright discharge of 
all social-political duties. Political science is a deeper 
and more extended study of the same subject. 



204 THE PRINCIPLES OF EDUCATION 

Sociology supplements history in revealing the details 
of the social structure and in laying bare the forces at 
work in producing a higher and more just social organ- 
ization. By means of exact description and measure- 
ment it makes these elements more available for social 
insight and control. With obvious and comparatively 
slight modifications, the remarks made in connection 
with history apply to sociology also. 

Ethics is the science that resolves conduct into a 
consistent system. It deals with the form of the good 
and the bad, or the right and the wrong, in conduct just 
as aesthetics deals with the form of the beautiful and 
logic with the form of the true. It is in a measure pre- 
supposed by all social subjects, holding a relation here 
analogous to that of mathematics to the natural sci- 
ences. It is, however, most closely related to sociology. 
For this science it furnished the principles of guidance 
in apphcation and therefore is indirectly practical. It 
supplies the factor that makes moral training and 
social control intelligent and rational. Subjectively it 
is in a high degree liberalizing. It aids in removing the 
shackles of superstition in regard to conduct, and in 
setting the mind free. 

Commercial geography, commercial and industrial 
education, manual and business training, and political 
economy all form aspects of one large subject which 
culminates in oar various industrial and commercial ac- 
tivities. Together with history and sociology, these sub- 
jects deal with the underlying bases of our business, 
social, and political life. Domestic art and domestic 
science should also be classified in this group. 

The practical value of these subjects is at once evident, 
and they are being introduced into our schools chiefly 



EDUCATIONAL VALUE OF THE HUMANITIES 205 

on that basis. They possess the practical value both for 
the individual and for society, and they possess it in a 
high degree, but we need to realize that they possess 
also the socializing and liberalizing values. The person 
who has a thorough acquaintance with the industrial 
and commercial aspects of his environment can scarcely 
help having the range of his sympathies enlarged and 
his mental horizon broadened. A person can be intel- 
ligently sympathetic and cooperative only with those 
whose general surroundings and round of daily duties 
he understands, while, on the other hand, the liberaliz- 
ing influence attaches to the understanding of all the 
elements of one's environment that rest upon law and 
system. To understand our banking system or our 
railroad industry is no less liberalizing than to under- 
stand a science or a foreign language. Such knowledge 
puts one in touch and harmony with large and influ- 
ential elements of modern life. To be ignorant of them 
compels one just to that extent to live as a stranger in 
a strange land. 

But as yet most people are ignorant of these things. 
We have only made a beginning at studying them in a 
systematic way. Our educational ideals and practices at 
this point have not yet caught up with our civilization. 
Tradition has it that culture inheres only or chiefly in 
things that are hoary with age, and we pay homage to 
the elements of civilizations that are dead and gone. 
Now while these things need not, and should not, be dis- 
paraged, we need also to realize that there has grown up 
right about us a civilization that is no less worthy of 
study and comprehension. In a measure, of course, we 
are beginning to realize this. The economic and social 
sciences already have a place in our schools and colleges, 



206 THE PRINCIPLES OF EDUCATION 

and technical and commercial high schools, or technical 
and commercial courses in high schools, are becoming fre- 
quent. There is at present also a movement on foot for 
the establishment of industrial training and vocational 
schools for all grades of pupils. But the value of this 
training is seldom appreciated in its full extent. It is 
thought to be primarily, ahnost solely, utilitarian, and its 
socializing and liberalizing values are overlooked. There 
should, however, be nothing incongruous about a person 
taking an industrial subject for general educative pur- 
poses, just as he takes his|:ory, language, or science. But 
vocational and professional work, to be broadly educa- 
tive, must rest upon a scientific or theoretical foundation. 
We cannot expect much in the way of socializing and 
liberalizing influence from work that does not go beyond 
activities that are primarily routine and manual, and it 
must be frankly admitted that a broad education and 
vocational training cannot both be extensively acquired 
by the time a child is twelve or fourteen years of age. 

Political economy systematizes the facts of commercial 
and industrial life and gives them form. The business 
world is its laboratory, just as social life is the labora- 
tory for ethics. In the past it has been too exclusively 
formal, spinning its theories quite regardless of actual 
conditions, and its relation to industrial and commercial 
education is not yet always sufficiently close. Education- 
ally it shares in the practical, socializing, and liberalizing 
values. More than any other subject, it gives a genuine 
insight into such problems as those of capital and labor, 
labor-saving machinery, business and industrial legis- 
lation, banking and finance, supply and demand, and 
reciprocity, free trade, and protection, all of which are 
fundamental for intelligent and responsible citizenship. 



CHAPTER XII 

THE EDUCATIONAL VALUE OF THE NATURAL 
SCIENCES AND PHILOSOPHY 

8i. Mathematics. The form subject that is involved 
in all the sciences, both as to content and expression, is 
mathematics. The branches of this subject that are 
needed mostly by the general student are arithmetic, 
algebra, geometry, and trigonometry, but calculus and 
analytic geometry may also concern him. 

The opinion is becoming more and more widespread 
that the prevailing conception of the educational value 
of mathematics must be revised. Mathematics has gained 
and maintained its place in the curriculum largely on the 
basis of the traditional disciplinary value, and since that 
has become undermined, the subject has been lauded be- 
cause of its far-reaching practical and preparatory values. 
It is assumed that mathematics is extensively used by 
everyone and so must be extensively taught. Other forces 
that tend to keep it largely represented in the curricu- 
lum are its teachableness and the force of tradition. 
Tradition, which acts through various channels, always 
makes it difficult to curtail or eliminate a subject that 
has had a long and honored career, even though the 
conditions demanding the subject have changed. The 
teachableness of a subject is seldom explicitly recognized 
as a force that tends to maintain the subject in the cur- 
riculum. Yet it undoubtedly is such a force. A subject 



208 THE PRINCIPLES OF EDUCATION 

like mathematics that is clear-cut and definite and deals 
primarily with symbols is readily managed in the school- 
room and gives results that are also clear-cut, definite, 
and measurable. This acts, more or less consciously, as 
a selective force in favor of the subject. But not alone 
mathematics is influenced by this force. It applies to 
all the form subjects and to the more definite content 
subjects, such as language and physics, as well. A sub- 
ject that does not give definite results in our present 
educational system naturally tends to be eliminated. 

The two main values of mathematics are admittedly 
the practical and the preparatory. The practical value 
is quite universal, being second only to that of the 
mother tongue, but like the practical side of the mother 
tongue, it is confined for people in general to the 
elements of the subject. Every one finds use for know- 
ing how to count ; how to add, subtract, multiply, and 
divide ; how to handle common and decimal fractions ; 
and how to apply these processes in the denominate num- 
bers pertaining to weights, to measures, to mensuration, 
and to United States money with its applications to 
interest, profit and loss, etc. Beyond this the practical 
value does not go for the average person, although it 
does for the specialists in science and in engineering. 
Both of these need mathematics extensively as working 
tools. The extent to which the engineer needs it is well 
known, but the common assumption that among the 
scientists only the physical scientist needs extended 
mathematical training can no longer be held. The so- 
cial and biological sciences are also becoming highly 
mathematical, and the workers in them must be exten- 
sively equipped in this subject. But this equipment need 
not be extensive for the general student in any of the 



NATURAL SCIENCES AND PHILOSOPHY 209 

sciences. It is becoming recognized that the high school 
sciences should be taught primarily from the " nature 
study" point of view. They should put forward the 
content, instead of the mathematical side, and this is 
now quite generally done. A little mathematics beyond 
arithmetic is needed for this, but not a great deal. 

Mathematics has some sentimental value, but only for 
people who take pleasure in exact mental exercise and 
in the contemplation of mathematical relations. There 
are students for whom algebra, geometry, trigonom- 
etry, etc., are their own justification. These subjects 
appeal to them because of the intellectual satisfaction 
they supply, and such students should of course be 
given opportunity to indulge their taste. But as these 
are and should be the students who become the special- 
ists in mathematics, exact science, and engineering, no 
individual account need be taken of them. The liberal- 
izing value of the subject appeals to this same class of 
students. It is more general in its character than the 
sentimental, but it also appears to be effective only for 
certain minds, and only when the subject is exception- 
ally well taught. Algebra generalizes the conception 
and manipulation of numbers, and geometry and trigo- 
nometry give a liberalizing insight into certain mathe- 
matical relations that obtain in one's environment. 
These effects are worth gaining, especially for those 
who have a taste for mathematical relations, but it may 
be questioned that these subjects should be prescribed 
for this reason. 

In view of this analysis, it becomes evident that we 
have been prescribing mathematics too generally. " All 
over the United States, for example, girls are studying 
algebra and geometry, giving thereto a large part of 



210 THE PRINCIPLES OF EDUCATION 

their learning energy. Have we the slightest proof that 
in this case the results are worth while? " ^ Remember- 
ing that for want of time a number of available and 
important subjects must necessarily be omitted, should 
mathematics, beyond arithmetic, be required of every 
high school graduate? Could the essentials of algebra 
and geometry be so combined that they could be taught 
in one year, and then have one year of mathematics 
prescribed in the high school? 

The combination of the essentials of the various 
mathematical subjects in the high school is apparently 
being successfully achieved in the recent movement 
toward concreteness and correlation in the teaching of 
secondary mathematics. This movement bids fair to 
make high school mathematics inherently more valuable 
for the general student. In gaining concreteness, how- 
ever, it must not be forgotten that mathematics is a 
form, and not a content subject, and correlation must 
not be allowed to crowd out logical organization. 

82. The Physical Sciences. The physical sciences are 
represented by chemistry, physics, and astronomy. Their 
chief value for the general student is the cultural, but 
they possess this in their own peculiar manner. They 
serve to acquaint a person with the physical phenomena 
in his environment, thus putting him in harmony with 
them — a liberalizing effect — and giving him greater 
appreciation of them. These phenomena are so close to 
every one that the value of knowing them is correspond- 
ingly enhanced. This may be best illustrated by means 
of physics. Light, heat, and other forms of energy are 
all about us, not only in their raw forms, but also in 
applied forms. The person who does not, in fundamen- 

1 School Review, xvi, 589. 



NATURAL SCIENCES AND PHILOSOPHY 211 

tal principle, understand the steam engine, motor, dy- 
namo, electric lighting, telephone, telegraph, microscope, 
telescope, and similar instruments cannot fully appreciate 
these elements of his environment and cannot assume 
an intelligent relation to them. The freedom of his 
mental life is curtailed. He is living among unknown 
objects, but his superficial acquaintance with them hides 
his real ignorance. His deeper intellectual needs may 
also remain unsatisfied. Man has ever been curious to 
understand the structure of matter and the nature of 
the forces that play about him, and to have that curi- 
osity in a measure satisfied is no small reward. Lre- 
spective of the applications that are made of these phe- 
nomena, we wish to understand them, and physics and 
chemistry give us the most assistance toward a rational 
understanding. The structure of matter as revealed by 
chemistry and assisted by physics is to many minds 
fascinating. It borders on the ultimate and partakes 
of some of its mystery. 

But physics and chemistry should do more than im- 
part a knowledge of general principles. These subjects 
form the basis of most of the useful arts and conven- 
iences on which our civilization rests, and it is to these 
that they should introduce the student. Text-book and 
even laboratory physics and chemistry are formal. To 
become truly educative, these must be supplemented by 
frequent excursions to places where the principles stud- 
ied are applied. The student should be led to see what 
use the world is making of these principles and to feel 
that he understands these uses. Only in this way can 
their educative value be maximally attained. 

The practical value of physics and chemistry is espe- 
cially great on the social side. It comes to people indi- 



212 THE PRINCIPLES OF EDUCATION 

rectly through municipal and corporate enterprises, but 
for the large number employed in these enterprises it is 
directly practical also. They need a knowledge of these 
subjects to enable them to do their work efficiently, and 
also to give them plasticity. The routine worker who 
knows in a mechanical way only the process in which 
he is immediately engaged is frequently not self -helpful 
even in his own small sphere, because he lacks the 
knowledge of scientific principles on which to base in- 
sight into difficulties ; and when necessity constrains him 
for any reason to do a somewhat different kind of work, 
he is still further handicapped. Without a grounding 
in scientific principles he lacks the plasticity that scien- 
tific insight gives. 

Astronomy is less practical than physics or chemistry, 
and for this reason it has been almost eliminated from 
the curriculum of the schools. The slight knowledge of 
the stars that may be helpful in navigation is needed by 
only a few and can be incidentally acquired ; and for the 
determination of time and of the appearance of eclipses 
society has learned to depend on a few professional as- 
tronomers. The need for a knowledge of astronomy is 
still further curtailed by the fact that a little about the 
sun, moon, and planets is learned in geography, and by 
the fact that the stars are too remote to be felt as a part 
of one's environment with which one ought to be inti- 
mately acquainted. Historically, the scientific pursuit of 
the subject has had much to do with freeing the mind 
from superstitious fear regarding heavenly phenomena, 
but this freedom is now transmitted as a part of the 
social atmosphere, quite regardless of exact knowledge 
on the part of those who inherit it. 

Apparently the only reason remaining for the study 



NATURAL SCIENCES AND PHILOSOPHY 213 

of astronomy is the cultural. It appeals to the emotion 
of grandeur probably more than any other subject, and 
so its phenomena are inspiring to contemplate. Instruc- 
tion in the subject, however, is usually so formal that 
even this value is largely lost. In order to obtain it, 
direct study of the stars must be included. The stu- 
dent should be led to observe the stars and to become 
acquainted with them. He should learn the name and 
location of the first, and of some of the second mag- 
nitude stars, and also of the leading constellations and 
their associated myths. This might, indeed, be taught as 
a part of nature study in the grades, especially during 
the winter months, when the heavens are most beautiful 
and when the stars appear early in the evening. This 
amount of knowledge should certainly be looked upon 
as the rightful heritage of every one. It enriches the 
life of the possessor directly by giving him an intelligent 
appreciation of some ever present, although physically 
remote, elements in his environment, and indirectly by 
giving genuine meaning to many literary allusions. On 
the liberal side it sets the mind free in this vast uni- 
verse of ours, an effect that alone would make the study 
of the subject worth while. 

83. The Earth Sciences. The earth sciences that 
concern the general student are mathematical and phys- 
ical geography and geology. Mathematical and physical 
geography are intimately connected with social, com- 
mercial, and political geography, serving to organize 
and rationalize them. Their values are therefore pre- 
paratory and liberalizing. The introduction that phys- 
ical geography gives to the sciences taken later is quite 
negligible. 

Geology has a practical value in the hands of the 



214 THE PRINCIPLES OF EDUCATION 

specialist, and serves society through him, but for the 
general student it must be defended almost entirely 
on the basis of its cultural value, which it possesses in 
no slight degree. It makes the earth intelligible in its 
past and present life. Dynamic geology makes explicit 
the forces that are now operating to change the face of 
the earth, and historical geology reveals the earth's 
wonderful antiquity and the changes through which it 
has passed. To one possessed of this knowledge, every 
rock, gorge, hill, mountain, and stream has added 
meaning. The appreciation of the earth's geologic his- 
tory has profound sentimental value. 

84. The Biological Sciences. Under the biological 
sciences we have mentioned botany, zoology, bacteriology, 
and physiology. These four subjects do not exhaust the 
list, but they are the ones with which the general student 
is most concerned. In general, they serve to acquaint 
the student with the biological aspects of his environ- 
ment, with which he comes in contact more or less inti- 
mately every day. Their place in education is well 
established, and is justified by the cultural, social, prac - 
tical, and prepara tory values. In these values they alT 
share, although not equally. 

For the general student the cultural value, both in 
its liberalizing and sentimental aspects, should be placed 
first in botany and zoology, and the practical and social 
values in bacteriology and physiology. The aesthetic value 
of plants and flowers is universally recognized. Every- 
body enjoys them, whether versed in botany or not, and 
while the knowledge of that science may not enhance 
that enjoyment for all who possess it, it certainly does 
for the majority. Those who do not have their aesthetic 
appreciation increased thereby, if such there be, never- 



NATURAL SCIENCES AND PHILOSOPHY 215 

theless gain the liberalizing influence of this knowledge 
and a worthy type of intellectual diversion. 

If it is granted that the cultural value is the chief one 
to be derived from botany by the general student, it is 
manifest that this subject is seldom taught from the right 
point of view in the primary and secondary schools. This 
value implies a broad and sympathetic acquaintance with 
plants and flowers, which can be obtained only when the 
" nature study " point of view is uppermost. Dissection 
of plants in the laboratory and the keeping of note-books 
have their place in furthering this acquaintance, but 
they are now frequently carried much too far. They are 
allowed to crowd out the real knowledge of the plants 
themselves, and the student of botany leaves the class 
with but little more knowledge of the plants in his 
environment than he has before entering. To be fully 
assimilated and appreciated, dissection and the morpho- 
logical and physiological studies should follow and form 
the capstone of the " nature study " knowledge. When 
the latter is adequately imparted in the grades, the 
former may well be given as a part of the high school 
course. Systematic and intensive knowledge should not 
be omitted, but it should be based upon, and accom- 
panied by, a broad general acquaintance with plants. 

The practical value of botanical knowledge is not 
great for the general student. In the main this know- 
ledge concerns him only in the care of house and gar- 
den plants, and even this aspect might be legitimately 
included under the sentimental value. The farmer and 
fruit-grower, however, are beginning to profit by botani- 
cal knowledge. Agriculture is rapidly becoming scientific 
and is thereby being made more effective. The botanical 
principles that are used are special rather than general, 



216 THE PRINCIPLES OF EDUCATION 

but they can be made fully effective, as well as liberaliz- 
ing, only when based on a general knowledge of botany. 
For the general student agricultural botany has the social 
value through helping to furnish an appreciative acquaint- 
ance with a large, necessary, and honorable industry. 

Another social and moral gain from botanical teaching 
is pointed out and emphasized by Professor Lloyd (46 : 
21 f. and 77 f.). This is the approach it gives to the 
" complex and elusive " social problem relating to sex. 
Botanical teaching should be utilized, Professor Lloyd 
maintains, " in discovering to the general student the 
fundamental fact of reproduction in a clear and un- 
hampered way." Botany obviously serves this purpose 
better than zoology, and the teacher is under moral ob- 
ligation to discharge his duty in this respect. Knowledge, 
while never a cure-all, is nevertheless a most potent 
safeguard of body and mind, here as elsewhere. 

The preparatory and introductory values of botany 
can be best considered in connection with zoology, under 
the term " biology." Zoology, indeed, possesses these 
values in a greater degree than botany. Neurological, 
psychological, and sociological phenomena are all ulti- 
mately biological, and can be approached effectively only 
through biology. It is furthermore true that even the 
problems of philosophy and religion have large biologi- 
cal aspects. Ultimately, physics and chemistry are also 
involved in these problems, for it is being seen more 
and more that matter, life, and mind are all aspects of 
the same fundamental unity. But for the general stu- 
dent the principles of biology are sufficiently funda- 
mental in furnishing a basis for the understanding of 
mental and social phenomena, and they form a necessary 
phase in the philosophic insight of all. 



NATURAL SCIENCES AND PHILOSOPHY 217 

Reference was made in the introductory chapter to 
the fact that biology introduces the student to the evo- 
lutionary point of view, without which one cannot have 
a sympathetic appreciation of modern culture. Biology 
is not the only science that serves as such an introduc- 
tion, but because of the absorbing interest that man 
himself has in this view-point, being himself the highest 
product of the animal series, it is best approached 
through a knowledge of this series. Embryology and 
historical geology form strong supports to zoology at 
this point. In teaching zoology, however, to the young 
student, the teacher must make it one of his conscious 
aims to impart a knowledge of the doctrine of evolution. 
Unless this is done, all its value in this direction may 
be lost, for incidental learning is treacherous. 

While elementary physiology should precede biology 
and so be introductory to it, a profound knowledge of 
physiology must be based on biology. Much of human 
physiology may, indeed, be taught in connection with 
biology. This brings out the comparative point of view 
which is everywhere so valuable. 

The practical value of zoological knowledge touches 
the majority of mankind only indirectly. It is discussed 
in the following words by Bigelow : — 

The value of animals in the food-supply is not directly 
affected by widespread knowledge of zoological science, 
for at most such knowledge would be of direct practical 
value only to the relatively few who are able to apply it 
in the supplying of animals for food. But the problems 
of the food-supply are of such importance that we must 
believe that there is a general interest in them and 
especially in the attempts to increase the supply by the 
application of scientific principles gained from the study 



218 THE PRINCIPLES OF EDUCATION 

of animals. A knowledge of the general facts of zoology 
will do much towards making the average citizen ap- 
preciative of the work in this line, especially that of 
governmental departments, such as the United States 
Department of Agriculture, the United States Fish 
Commission, and the various State agricultural stations 
and fish commissions. 

Besides the value of animals in the human food-sup- 
ply, there may be mentioned the useful domesticated 
animals and the animal products other than food. These 
are aspects of animal economics which should arouse 
at least an intelligent interest on the part of educated 
citizens. 

Then there are the numerous animals which are 
directly opposed to the interests of man. The economic 
importance of this aspect of zoological knowledge is 
evident when one inquires into the monetary value of 
crops and domesticated animals which are annually 
destroyed by such animals as insects, rodents, and para- 
sites (46 : 248). 

The remarks that were made in connection with the 
cultural value of botany, and the manner in which it 
should be taught, apply also to zoology. On the senti- 
mental side this value of zoology is probably less than 
that of botany for most people, while on the liberaliz- 
ing side it is greater. 

Zoological knowledge is vital and far-reaching in its 
rationalizing and liberalizing influence. This is because 
man is a member of the animal series, and therefore 
can understand himself and his institutions fully only 
through a knowledge of that series. Many animals are 
beautiful in their outline, color, and movements and are 
appreciated for these qualities, but much of the interest 
that people take in them has its source in the fact that 



NATURAL SCIENCES AND PHILOSOPHY 219 

they are actively alive. We are instinctively interested 
in all things that are alive and move, partly because of 
incipient fear, but mostly because our social feelings 
are aroused. This interest may be somewhat enhanced 
by knowledge, but probably not a great deal. Being 
emotional, it is properly classed as a sentimental value. 
Zoological gardens owe their popularity to it, as well as 
to the aesthetic qualities of animals. 

Bacteriology is an aspect of biology that is worthy of 
independent designation and study. Although devel- 
oped but recently, it already possesses a value second to 
no other science from a practical standpoint. By means 
of its knowledge, specialists are curing the diseases of 
men, beasts, and plants, and they are improving our 
water-supplies and the palatableness and healthfulness 
of our foods. It is true that these values touch most 
people indirectly, so that a knowledge of the science is 
not demanded of them, but some knowledge should un- 
questionably be general. In relation to personal hygiene 
it is beneficial for all, and it serves the social good by 
furthering remedial legislation and the efforts of spe- 
cialists generally. What is needed for the general stu- 
dent is a brief introductory course requiring but little 
technic. A course of this nature should find a place 
in every high school, and might well be a part of the 
course in physiology and hygiene. It would there form 
the logical capstone to the didactic hygienic instruction 
given in the elementary school. 

Physiology must be defended mainly on its practical 
and preparatory values, but because it is concerned with 
our bodies, it seems that we should be interested in it also 
for cultural reasons. It should form the foundation and 
the capstone for zoology and so share in its values. Per- 



220 THE PRINCIPLES OF EDUCATION 

sonal hygiene and the intelligent care of the body are 
directly influenced by physiology. 

85. The Mental Sciences. The mental sciences take 
as their province the phenomena of consciousness, which 
are a special phase of the biological sciences. They may 
all be discussed together under the head of psychology. 

Psychology holds practically no place in the second- 
ary school, and is elsewhere pursued almost solely by 
those who are preparing to teach. This indicates that 
only its preparatory value is receiving recognition. 
Teachers need it in order to gain an intelligent insight 
into educational theory and practice. Next to teachers, 
it is studied by alienists, who need it in treating the in- 
sane, and many are now advocating its introduction into 
medical schools. Physicians in general, and specialists in 
nervous diseases in particular, could certainly profit by 
psychology. In regard to the evaluation of evidence, it 
should be of no small value to the lawyer and jurist. 
The students of sociology and philosophy need it very 
definitely, and so does the clergyman. For the general 
student the science is becoming more and more valuable 
as it is being further developed, especially on its physi- 
ological and experimental sides. It bids fair soon to ren- 
der valuable service in the reading of character and in 
determining future vocation. When further developed, 
its cultural values, too, will become more pronounced. 

86. Logic. Logic and ethics are usually classed among 
the philosophical subjects, and so far as this is done for 
convenience in teaching, the practice is on the whole justi- 
fiable. But these subjects do not deal with ultimate rela- 
tions any more than do mathematics and aesthetics, and so 
do not logically belong to philosophy. They are form sub- 
jects that are most intimately connected with the social 



NATURAL SCIENCES AND PHILOSOPHY 221 

and natural sciences. Logic is nothing but a systematic 
presentation of scientific method. It generalizes the meth- 
ods by means of which reliable knowledge is acquired 
both in and out of school. This gives it first of all the lib- 
eralizing value, but this value cannot be gained from the 
subject in any significant degree unless it is preceded 
by a somewhat extensive study of the content subjects, 
especially of the sciences. This lays a basis for the gen- 
eralizations with which logic deals and so makes these 
generalizations significant. Without this basis the subject 
is abstract and meaningless. For the teacher, and in 
a slight degree for the lawyer and the scientist, the 
subject has a preparatory value, but for the general 
student it must be defended entirely on the basis of its 
liberalizing value. 

57. Philosophy. The observation has been made a 
number of times in the preceding pages that every sub- 
ject should be looked upon as involving content, form, 
and expression. The teacher should always bear in mind 
all three aspects when teaching any one of the subjects. 
But this does not exhaust the range of interrelationship 
that exists between the subjects. Referring to our outline 
of the curriculum (p. 179), we may say that the subjects 
are related not only horizontally, but also vertically and 
diagonally. History involves geography, and geography 
involves history. Esthetics, ethics, and logic all involve 
psychology, and so do sociology, anthropology, and phi- 
losophy. These interrelations are recognized in educa- 
tion under the head of the correlation of studies and 
are treated in the Principles of Teaching. From our 
present point of view they are all involved in the pre- 
paratory and introductory values. 

The group of studies that is related most intimately 



222 THE PRINCIPLES OF EDUCATION 

and completely to the other subjects is the philosophical. 
It involves them all, and has no content that is dis- 
tinctly and solely its own. The whole field of knowledge 
and action is its domain. The ultimate nature of all 
content or reality, of which the other subjects have 
given us but partial and superficial views, is dealt with 
in metaphysics, and the relation of knowledge to reality 
is the problem of epistemology. Religious life, or con- 
duct in the broadest sense, is the expression of man's 
attitude toward the world that has become his convic- 
tion. It depends on all that he knows, feels, and be- 
lieves, and so forms the pinnacle of the curriculum and 
of life. 

Being dependent upon, and forming the unity of, the 
other subjects, philosophy should naturally come rela- 
tively late in the course. It requires both extensive 
knowledge and experience for its appreciation. Its value 
arises out of its synthesizing effect and the enlarged 
point of view that it conveys. It reveals the world as 
a progressive, evolving unity in which law reigns su- 
preme and in which there is nothing capricious. When 
correlated with ethics, history, and the doctrine of evo- 
lution, it reveals the world as a moral order. Its chief 
value, therefore, is the liberalizing, but it possesses also 
the sentimental and social values. The liberalizing value 
it possesses above that of any other subject, or rather, 
it completely releases the liberalizing influences of the 
other subjects. The student beginning the study of 
metaphysics usually finds that his mental structure 
must be largely reconstructed. It contains many false 
columns that must be removed, and others must be 
placed into new and heretofore unrecognized positions. 
Some things that were thought to be primary and in- 



NATURAL SCIENCES AND PHILOSOPHY 223 

dispensable are seen to be secondary and insignificant, 
and others are correspondingly exalted. 

By leading to a more profound understanding of man 
and his place in the world, philosophy has a socializing 
influence, and the conceptions that it imparts appeal 
both to the aesthetic and intellectual sentiments. It calls 
for the exercise of the highest intellectual powers, those 
dealing with abstractions and subtile distinctions, which 
makes the subject a difficult one for certain types of 
mind, but a correspondingly interesting and fascinat- 
ing one for other types. On the side of expression it 
appeals primarily to the heart and so is of concern to 
every one. 

EXERCISES 

1* What studies would supply the need implied by the 
following : " I am profoundly convinced that the greatest 
educational need of our time, in higher and lower schools 
alike, is a fuller appreciation on the part of the teachers of 
what human institutions really mean and what tremendous 
moral issues and principles they involve." — N. M. Butler. 

Discuss the following evaluations : — 

2. Grammar (1) cultivates the power of discrimination, (2) 
promotes the study of the mind, and (3) should illustrate the 
difference between knowledge and opinion. — Gordy. 

3. Nature study (1) increases our interest in nature, (2) 
develops our realization of law and cultivates open-minded- 
ness, and (3) incites to specialization along the lines of natu- 
ral bent. — Gordy. 

4. History (1) increases one's knowledge of himself and 
his fellows ; (2) develops sympathy and charity ; (3) makes 
us realize that nations, like individuals, must act in accordance 
with the moral law ; (4) prepares for citizenship, (a) by the 
knowledge it imparts, (b) by developing a certain kind of 
reasoning power, (c) by fostering a high civic ideal. — Gordy. 



224 THE PRINCIPLES OF EDUCATION 

5. From the educational contents of zoology we may for- 
mulate two aims which should govern the teaching in the 
secondary school. First, the aim to teach zoology so that it 
will afford good scientific discipline should be the very foun- 
dation of zoological teaching. Second, it should be the aim to 
present the information — practical, intellectual, aesthetic, or 
moral in its bearing — which seems most valuable for liberal 
secondary education. — Bigelow. 

COLLATERAL READING 

Butler, Meaning of Education, 17-34 ; 164-183. 
De Garmo, Principles of Secondary Education, I, 65-161. 
GoRDY, A Broader Elementary Education, 241-289. 
HoRNE, Philosophy of Education, 103-145. 
Munsterberg, Psychology and the Teacher, 271-304. 



CHAPTER XIII 

THE ADMINISTRATION OF THE CURRICULUM 

88. Curriculum and Course of Study Distinguished. 
It has been our aim in the last three chapters to give a 
systematic exposition of the curriculum in its entirety 
and to discuss briefly the educational value of its lead- 
ing parts. No attempt was made to fit it into the schools 
in the form of a course of study. In fact, as used in 
these chapters, the idea of the curriculum should be dis- 
tinguished from the idea of the course of study. By the 
curriculum is meant the logical, complete, and unified 
eonception of the studies and exercises of the schools 
regardless of their administration, while by the course 
of study is meant the arrangement and grouping of 
these studies and exercises for the purpose of bringing 
them effectively to the learners. In this sense, only the 
consideration of the curriculum belongs to the Principles 
of Education, while the working out of the course of 
study belongs to School Management and Adminis- 
tration. But the Principles of Education is concerned 
with the fundamental principles underlying the course 
of study, and it is to these that we now turn. We shall 
consider them as pertaining to the topics of general cul- 
ture and vocational and avocational training. 

89. Our School System. The various exercises of the 
curriculum are transmitted to the students through the 
elementary schools, high schools, colleges, and universi- 
ties. A casual glance at their several activities does not 



226 THE PRINCIPLES OF EDUCATION 

reveal the fact that each has a specific function to per- 
form, or that the educative process falls into logically- 
distinct, although consecutively related, divisions. Each 
school appears to be a finishing school, and so seems to 
be related to the one next above it only as a matter of 
convenience. Distinct functions and inherent relation- 
ships are not apparent. 

But distinct functions and inherent relationships no 
doubt do exist. They become evident when we look be- 
neath the dividing lines that historical development has 
drawn and that have become conventional, and group 
all schools under the three heads of elementary,* second- 
ary, and higher schools. Instead of drawing the divid- 
ing lines at the end of the eighth, twelfth, and sixteenth 
school years, as is now done, they fall more logically 
near the sixth and fourteenth school years. The first 
division ending with the sixth grade gives us the section 
belonging to elementary or primary education, the next 
division ending with the sophomore year in college gives 
us the section belonging to secondary education, and 
everything above that may be classed as higher educa- 
tion. The precise school years at which the dividing lines 
are drawn are not significant, but it is significant that 
each one of the divisions has a distinctive, although not 
an exclusive, function. If this were the case, the effi- 
ciency of the school system would be increased in several 
ways. Instruction could be made more definite, and it 
might well be that a school system thus logically inte- 
grated would save from one to two years of the student's 
academic life. The present unrest in regard to the rela- 

* The term " primary " would be logically preferable to " elemen- 
tary," but it has by custom been restricted to mean the first two or 
three grades. 



ADMINISTRATION OF THE CURRICULUM 227 

tion of the high school and the grades, the high school 
and the college, and the college and the professional 
schools, is a symptom of our illogical arrangement. 

90. The Function of Elementary Education. The 
distinctive function of the elementary school should be, 
and in the early years now is, to impart the tools and 
conventionalities of knowledge, to lay the apperceptive 
basis for later academic acquirements, to ingrain such 
social and semi-social habits as those of politeness, 
promptness, cleanliness, obedience, honesty, and helpful- 
ness, to awaken the capacities of the child, to exercise 
his initiative and his creative power, and in general to 
provide the conditions for a happy and joyous child life. 
Objective acquisition and subjective expression, although 
correlative and inseparable, should both be present as 
ends in the teacher's mind. 

The intellectual conquests of the race cannot be 
appropriated without the possession of certain tools or 
instruments. A person must know how to read, write, 
spell, figure, draw, and construct, and he must know 
some elementary facts of composition and grammar ; he 
must know the conventional technicalities of maps, dic- 
tionaries, and other books of reference ; and he should 
possess the basal concepts of geography, history, litera- 
ture, art, and science. The basal concepts of science are, 
and should be, acquired in nature study ; those of art 
from the study of drawing, pictures, and song ; those of 
literature from fairy tales, myths, folk-stories, simple 
poetry, and other exercises pursued in the reading class ; 
those of history from the study of history stories and 
biography ; and those of geography from home geogra- 
phy and the elementary text-book. The concepts per- 
taining to civil government and personal hygiene may 



228 THE PRINCIPLES OF EDUCATION 

be taught to the class in general exercises, or may be 
treated in connection with history and nature study re- 
spectively. To these studies the pupil is only introduced 
by the elementary school period here designated, and 
the impression should not be allowed to prevail that 
anything is actually finished. Very little that has a spe- 
cific vocational bearing can find a place in this school, 
although of manual and constructive work there should 
be an abundance. 

91. The Function of Secondary Education. Just as 
the distinctive function of elementary education is to 
impart the tools, conventions, and basal concepts of 
knowledge, so that of secondary education is general^ 
culture. It is the function of this period to elevate the 
individual into the life of the species by giving him 
possession of those elements of life that it is the pre- 
rogative of man to possess. This is the period that is 
devoted primarily to making the student broadly ac- 
quainted with the environment in which he lives, to the 
end that he may have added appreciation of it, increased 
harmony with it, and intelligent mastery over it. Its 
central aims are the broadening and enriching of life, 
and the socializing of the individual through insight 
and participation. The subjects of study concerned are 
the humanities, the natural sciences, and philosophy, 
which we have discussed. 

On the subjective side secondary education means that 
the student's powers should be developed and be organ- 
ized into efficient instruments of action, and that he 
should be stimulated on all sides so that he may discover 
his own capacities, both for the sake of choosing a voca- 
tion and for the sake of avocational enjoyment. An all- 
round acquaintance with one's environment naturally 



ADMINISTRATION OF THE CURRICULUM 229 

« 

means an all-round stimulation of one's capacities, but 
the organization of the student's powers must be speci- 
fically aimed for in the methods of instruction and in 
those features of the school work to which the word 
" training " is properly applied. Under this head come the 
student's habits that are indicative of refinement and 
culture, his methods of thought and study, his prompt- 
ness and accuracy, and his ideals of moral and social 
conduct. 

General culture has been the function of the second- 
ary school throughout history, and, with the occasional 
exception of the university, this school has always been 
more systematically provided for than any other. At 
Athens general culture was imparted in the palaestra 
and the music school, especially the latter, and at Rome 
in the school of the Grammaticus, which were all sec- 
ondary schools. The secondary school was the first one 
to arise out of the intellectual darkness of the Middle 
Ages. In Germany this school has developed into the 
Gymnasium, in France into the Lycee and the College, 
and in England into the Grammar Schools and the 
great Public Schools. In all these countries the span 
of secondary instruction extends now from about the 
tenth to the nineteenth year of the student's life. The 
student has to know how to read, write, and figure when 
he enters, just as he had to at Athens and at Rome. 

In our own country the secondary school was again 
the first to be formally established. The colonists were 
eagerly solicitous about the learned professions, espe- 
cially the ministry, and set about to organize schools in 
which the Latin language was primarily taught. These 
were the Grammar Schools, and they were patterned 
after the Grammar Schools of old England. When 



230 THE PRINaPLES OF EDUCATION 



t 



these schools proved inadequate because of the narrow- 
ness of their curriculum, they were supplemented in 
the second half of the eighteenth century by the Acad- 
emy, which soon supplemented them altogether. 

The High School was not started to compete with the 
other secondary schools, but to supplement the instruc- 
tion given in the elementary or common schools. It was 
the outcome of the needs of a prosperous democracy. 
The Grammar School, and to a certain extent the Acad- 
emy, existed for the middle and upper classes, just as 
the typical secondary schools do now in Europe, and 
the elementary school developed for the lower classes. 
The elementary school was meant to be a finishing 
school, as the Volkschule is in Germany, but since the 
middle of the eighteenth century there has been a steady 
tendency away from social strata and class education 
toward democracy and a common educational ladder. 
The establishment of the High School was the first move 
toward extending public education upward from the 
common school. The first High School was established 
in Boston in 1821. It was first called the English 
Classical School, but the name was later changed to 
High School. The school was established for those 
graduates of the elementary school who did not wish to 
go to the university, and so enter the Latin School, but 
who did have time and inclination for further study. It 
was thus literally established as the people's college. 

Other cities soon foUowed the lead of Boston, and the 
High School, instead of remaining merely the " people's 
college," has assumed also the preparatory function, and 
has come to bridge the gap between the elementary school 
and the college or university, thus completing the educa- 
tional ladder. This development has been largely uncon- 



ADMINISTRATION OF THE CURRICULUM 231 

scious, and has paid no heed to the logical distinctions 
between elementary, secondary, and higher education. 
It adapted itself to conditions that were already in ex- 
istence when the High School appeared. 

Owing to the limitations of our secondary schools, 
American colleges have never consistently taken the 
students at the end of the secondary school period, as 
is done by the German universities, for example, but a 
number of years earlier. This makes the system less per- 
fect than it might be, but at the present time a read- 
justment between the different schools is taking place, 
and we may in time expect a smooth-working system in 
which each part will have a logical and distinctive func- 
tion to perform. The system could, indeed, be more per- 
fectly articulated than it now is by properly distributing 
and correlating the work, even though present dividing 
lines were not changed. 

92. The Function of Higher Education. If it is the 
function of secondary education to impart general cul- 
ture, what, then, is the function of higher education ? A 
careful examination of conditions as they exist reveals 
the fact that it is professional training. When the stu- 
dent has finished the secondary school period, and has 
discovered his capacities, he is ready to enter upon the 
preparation for one of the learned professions ; and it is 
the distinctive function of the university to give this 
preparation. 

The extent to which our larger universities have al- 
ready moved in this direction is concealed, first, by the 
fact that they still retain considerable secondary work in 
the earlier years of the course ; and secondly, that train- 
ing for the calling of teaching, or of special research, 
is marked off in the public mind from training for the 



232 THE PRINCIPLES OF EDUCATION 

calling of doctor, lawyer, or engineer. In reality, the 
kind of training that students receive to make them 
professors, or directors of laboratories is, of course, as 
professional as that of the school of technology or 
medicine (15 : 102). 

When the freshman and sophomore years of the col- 
lege are omitted in our considerations, the professional 
nature of the university is at once evident. The profes- 
sional work in the teachers' course is begun in the junior 
year quite universally, and the technical work in law, 
medicine, and engineering also begins at about that time. 
Some academic work may, and no doubt should, continue 
alongside of the professional work. General culture is 
not something to be gone through with and then perma- 
nently laid aside. 

Another question that presents itself at this point 
is the establishment of a university or association of 
scholars above, or supplementary to, the type of higher 
education just outlined, the primary function of such a 
university to be the extension of knowledge. The pre- 
vailing custom so far has been to let the teachers in the 
higher institutions of learning carry on the work of in- 
struction and research side by side. In this scheme the 
work of instruction is essentially primary, while that of 
research assumes somewhat of an avocational aspect, as 
well as becoming a means of preferment. The brilliant 
research scholar brings distinction to his university and 
is sought after. 

A college or university devoted primarily to research 
and investigation has long been the dream of scholars. 
Bacon, in "New Atlantis," outlined an institution of this 
kind, calling it Solomon's House, and Comenius made a 
similar institution the capstone of his ideal educational 



ADMINISTRATION OF THE CURRICULUM 233 

system, giving it the title of the College, of Light. In 
modern times this ideal is being realized by such ac- 
tivities as the Vilas bequest to the University of Wis- 
consin, the Carnegie Institution of Washington, the 
Rockefeller Institute for Medical Research, the scien- 
tific departments of governments, and by the graduate 
departments in all our leading universities. 

93. Social Prescriptions. The course of study out- 
lined so far applies only to those members of society 
who are preparing to enter the so-called learned profes- 
sions, or who for some other reason want extensive cul- 
ture and can afford the time and expense that it entails. 
The great majority of people have neither the time nor 
the inclination for such extensive culture, and, while this 
culture might be desirable for personal reasons, for the 
callings upon which these people wish to enter, society 
does not demand it, and probably never will. The edu- 
cational prescriptions, although not the educational op- 
portunities, that society makes are always related spe- 
cifically to its own welfare. It is necessary, for example, 
that the social leaders in law, medicine, engineering, and 
teaching be extensively trained so that social interests 
may be safely intrusted to their hands. Ignorance in 
any one of these classes would be sure to produce wide- 
spread injury and waste of effort. But when callings, 
such as farming and manufacturing, are not likely to 
prove injurious to society because the persons engaged 
in them are lacking in school training, society does pre- 
scribe educational qualifications to enter them. These 
callings may, however, be hedged about by other re- 
strictions, such as pure food and factory laws, but these 
do not concern the school as directly as do the educa- 
tional qualifications. 



234 THE PRINCIPLES OF EDUCATION 

94. Vocational Training. The fact that people do 
not all pass through the entire course of study greatly 
complicates the administration of the curriculum. Pro- 
vision has to be made for people to pass out into the 
vocations of life at practically every stage above the 
elementary period. In the immediate past, little in a 
vocational way was done by the public school for this 
class of people. For this fact the school has often been 
blamed, but probably not with entire justice. The finan- 
cial resources at the disposal of the school have always 
been limited, and therefore the choice has rested really 
between vocational training and a certain amount of 
general culture. Now of these two the latter has rightly 
been regarded as the more precious. Vocational train- 
ing was obtainable by the apprentice system and other- 
wise in the actual callings of life, but general culture, 
which is certainly no less essential in producing a 
worthy and efficient life, is seldom so acquired. Unless 
supplied by the school, this would be permanently omit- 
ted from the lives of most people. The slogan that all 
people should be given equal opportunity for vocational 
preparation in the school is thus seen not to have been 
entirely fair. The school may be one opportunity for 
offering such training, but only one. If it is socially 
more expedient to acquire certain types of vocational 
training outside the school, society is not obliged to 
provide for this training in the school also. The train- 
ing required for the learned professions cannot be effi- 
ciently picked up in practice, but as society needs these 
professions, it must provide for them by means of the 
school. On the other hand, many other vocations may 
still be efficiently acquired in practice. 

But the concentration and specialization of industry 



ADMINISTRATION OF THE CURRICULUM 235 

and the advancement of applied science are making it 
ever more difficult to acquire certain callings in prac- 
tice that have been formerly so acquired, and as a result 
there is now a definite movement on foot toward voca- 
tional training given either in the existing public schools 
or in separate schools. Instead of professional training 
only at the end of the secondary period, it will have to 
be provided at a number of stages in this period. It will 
then be as easy to pass into a vocation along the way as 
it now is to pass into one of the professions at the end 
of the school course. The amount of prerequisite aca- 
demic or scientific training for the various vocations will 
have to be determined separately for each case, or class 
of cases. It will no doubt begin rather low and then be 
gradually increased, as has been the case in the pro- 
fessions. 

This movement is sure in time to prove an added 
educational, as well as a vocational, opportunity for 
many. When it is realized that continuing in school 
will give increased opportunity for desirable employ- 
ment, more will remain there and for a longer time 
than is now the case. This added time will be spent not 
merely in vocational training, but also in the sciences 
underlying this training, and in a study of the social 
functions that the vocations should properly discharge. 
Such training will be distinctly liberalizing and social- 
izing, and this will make vocational education genu- 
inely educative. Art and literary subjects will also find 
their way into the curriculum and contribute their spe- 
cific values. 

The general educative effect produced by the voca- 
tional courses will depend primarily on the spirit in 
which the work is done, for aU subjects when approached 



236 THE PRINCIPLES OF EDUCATION 

from the rational and human, instead of the sordid, 
point of view yield social and liberal influences. The 
head and the heart must be put into the work as well 
as the hands, and when this is done, the life-realizing 
value of any vocation is subject only to the tastes and 
capacities of the individual concerned. Any training is 
liberalizing that liberates the mind through insight into 
principles, and any training is socializing that makes 
the heart go out to one's fellows. Whether vocational 
and industrial education will be cultural or not will de- 
pend far more on the teachers and the spirit in which 
they teach than on any other consideration involved. To 
emphasize the liberal and social aspects, and to subor- 
dinate the sordid, will be more difficult here than in the 
general culture subjects, but we may confidently expect 
that our teachers will be equal to the task. 

The solution of the problem of vocational training, 
and of industrial and commercial education, is greatly 
aided by the recognition of the fact that we can educate 
through commerce and industry as well as for them. 
This being the case, it is unfortunate that academic, 
commercial, and technical high schools are separated 
from one another as they now so often are. This fosters 
class distinctions and removes the possibility of elect- 
ing certain subjects from each group of students. The 
unity of our democratic society and our educational 
system would be better maintained if we had less sep- 
aration and traditional discrimination in our general 
culture schools, a class to which all public high schools 
unquestionably belong, even though they contain voca- 
tional subjects and vocational courses. 

95. Avocational Training. In connection with voca- 
tional training, the antithetical question of avocational 



ADMINISTRATION OF THE CURRICULUM 237 

training may also be logically raised. Granted that voca- 
tional training be assigned a definite place in the curric- 
ulum, should avocational training receive similar recog- 
nition ? In answer it may be said that everything now 
in the curriculum, including even the vocational work, 
may be put to avocational uses. What are the leading 
functions of art, music, literature, and of much of history, 
science, philosophy, and constructive work but to increase 
the capacity for the noble enjoyment of leisure? The 
manual and routine worker may find opportunities for 
compensating recreation and growth in work that is of 
a more intellectual nature, while the brain worker may 
perhaps maintain his balance best by making furniture 
and other things in a little shop in the attic or basement 
of his home. The more emotional provinces of literature, 
art, and music may be shared by both. The person whose 
vocation takes him outdoors may find his avocation in 
an indoor employment, while the indoor worker may 
perhaps best recuperate himself in outdoor sports. One's 
vocation as a rule exercises but a part of one's self, and 
it is necessary from the points of view of both health and 
efficiency to be able to engross one's seK in some com- 
pensating avocational activity. 

Avocational training involves the question of the 
permanency of school interests. The criticism is some- 
times made that the work of the schools is defective 
because the interests that are acquired in school are not 
permanent. Thorndike, for example, says : — 

The chi defect o^ school instruction with respect to 
acquisitior oi interests is that, as a consequence, they 
are not permanent. Interests are present under the 
stimuli of school life which die out soon after it is com- 
pleted. As children we learn, but as adults we too often 



238 THE PRINCIPLES OF EDUCATION 

lose our love for learning. The higher feelings are nour- 
ished in the protected surroundings of the college, but 
do not long survive the transfer to the rougher outside 
world and competition with the interests in money, 
power, and position (66 : 53). 

Now it is no doubt true that as teachers we often fail 
to reach maximum efficiency in making worthy interests 
permanent in our students. The remedy for this fault 
lies in a clearer appreciation of the aims and values of 
education and in a mastery of the methods of attaining 
them. But as Thorndike's criticism stands, it does not 
fully state the case, and something may legitimately 
be said on the other side. It may be said, in the first 
place, that by no means all of the educative effects of 
a study are lost if an active interest in the study is 
not maintained after school life. To have once known 
a subject and to have forgotten its details is a great 
deal better than never to have known it at all. The per- 
son who has had a course in physics that brought him 
into actual contact with the physical phenomena in his 
environment will have his attitude toward that environ- 
ment permanently changed, even though he maintains 
no permanent interest in the study itself. He will have 
been liberalized in that direction once for all, and he 
will always feel the force of natural explanation. The 
liberalizing effect of every study is largely retained even 
though the active study of the subj -. i. L iioi .:ontinued, 
and the same may be said of the con' entional value. The 
sentimental value is dependent far more on rontinued 
participation, but the socializing value is agai . largely 
continuous after it has once been gained. Ti e person 
who has once gained a thorough c( nception ad appre- 
ciation of his country and of his rel; tion thereto through 



ADMINISTRATION OF THE CURRICULUM 239 

the study of history and civics is ever after a different 
social being. The full force of this value would unques- 
tionably be better maintained if some active interest in 
these subjects were continued, say through a permanent 
interest in current events, but all of it would proba- 
bly never be lost. The practical value, being in a high 
degree dependent on exact knowledge, is far less per- 
manent, but the preparatory and introductory values are 
again largely permanent ones, the former less so than 
the latter, however. 

In the second place, it should be observed that the de- 
mands and conditions of after-life are so different from 
school life that the maintenance of a similar breadth of 
interests cannot be expected. The cultivation of a broad 
acquaintance with life, or the development of many in- 
terests, is the business of the student in school, but in 
after-life the pursuit of a specific vocation becomes his 
chief concern. This in a large measure supplants his 
school or college activities and is bound to consume the 
major portion of his time. It becomes impossible for 
him to keep alive as many interests as he did while at 
school, and even though his love for learning should not 
die out, he would find no time to nourish it as broadly 
as he might wish. 

But the alternatives are not either to keep alive all 
of the interests stimulated in school and college or to 
let them all die. We must realize first of all that one's 
vocation should, and usually does, keep alive some of 
one's higher, and even one's highest interests. The 
vocation will surely do this if it is properly chosen. The 
solution regarding the interests not included in the voca- 
tion is to keep alive the choicest ones by one or two 
avocational activities. The interests not maintained by 



£40 THE PRINaPLES OF EDUCATION 

these two lines of activity should be frankly and cheer- 
fully allowed to subside. In regard to them we may say 
with James : — 

Not that I would not, if I could, be both hand- 
some and fat and well dressed, and a great athlete, and 
make a million dollars a year, be a wit, a hon-vivant, 
and a lady-killer, as well as a philosopher ; a philan- 
thropist, statesman, warrior, and African explorer, as 
well as a " tone-poet " and saint. But the thing is 
simply impossible (39 : 309). 

Life is too short to maintain a great diversity of in- 
terests, and our students should be led to realize that fact 
fairly early. We cannot be everything, but we can be 
something, and this something should include the equip- 
ment for both a vocation and at least one avocation. The 
vocation we are compelled to choose by the conditions 
of existence, but we are not thus compelled to choose 
an avocation, and therefore it often goes by default. 
This makes it necessary to apprise young people of the 
fact that they should concentrate upon the choice of an 
avocation no less than upon a vocation. If it were 
more generally realized when there is yet time that both 
are necessary for a complete and wholesome life, the 
avocation would not so often be overlooked. The person 
without an avocation usually loses his vivacity, his en- 
thusiasm, and his interest in life, and he is a burden to 
himself when alone and not vocationally employed. He 
lacks the power of noble self-entertainment, a power 
that must be accorded high rank in human life. In con- 
ferring this power the school has a definite duty to per- 
form, and while it may not be necessary to introduce 
special avocational subjects not now in the curriculum, 



ADlVnNISTRATION OF THE CURRICULUM 241 

the school should nevertheless make avocational train- 
ing a conscious aim. 

96. Effects of Education Summarized. We may 
now summarize the effects that the educative process 
should have upon the individual. Every broadly edu- 
cated person may be justly expected (1) to have a gen- 
eral acquaintance with aU the fundamental sections in 
the field of human knowledge to the end that he may be 
able to take an intelligent part in the mental life of the 
race ; (2) to be in masterful possession of the knowledge 
and skill pertaining to one section of this field, to the 
end that he may be able to make his own livelihood 
and contribute to the social welfare ; (3) to be a pro- 
gressive student, so that he may be able to continue his 
own growth and to remain in harmony with an ad- 
vancing society ; (4) to have ingrained in his speech and 
conduct those elements of refinement and accuracy that 
are everywhere recognized as the accompaniments of 
culture ; (5) to have assimilated as a part of his nature 
those truths and ideals that the race has learned to 
cherish ; and (6) to have the capacity of elevating, or 
at least harmless, self-entertainment, to the end that he 
may not be at the mercy of the pleasures of sense or a 
burden to himself when alone. Although these six ele- 
ments are here numbered consecutively, they should not 
be interpreted as holding that relation to one another. 
They should rather be looked upon as being of coordi- 
nate rank. 

EXERCISES 

1. What is apparently being done with the American col- 
lege in the present educational readjustment ? 

2. What defense could be made for the public support of 
universities devoted primarily or solely to research ? 



242 THE PRINCIPLES OF EDUCATION 

3. What appear to be the social forces that have drawn, and 
are tending to maintain, the lines of division between schools 
at the end of the eighth, twelfth, and sixteenth school years ? 

4. What are the physiological benefits derived from relax- 
ation and recreation ? 

5. To what extent is it true that the world^s great men 
have had both a vocation and an avocation ? 

6. Could such games as pool, billiards, chess, and cards 
be rescued from their evil associations and be made more 
generally available as recreative agencies ? Could the school 
assist in this ? 

7. Write out what appear to you the ten leading activities 
in which people seek recreation and enjoyment. To what 
extent is the school assisting in equipping people to pursue 
these activities ? Are there any in which the school might 
render more assistance than it is doing ? 

Compare the following summaries of the effects that edu- 
cation should produce with the summary given in the text. 

8. These five characteristics, then, I offer as evidences of 
education — correctness and precision in the use of the 
mother tongue ; refined and gentle manners, which are the 
expression of fixed habits of thought and action ; the power 
and habit of reflection ; the power of growth ; and efficiency, 
or the power to do. — Nicholas Murray Butler. 

9. In a recent address President Eliot is reported to have 
made these four points as the result of a liberal education : — 

(a) A knowledge of past and current events in the world's 
progress. 

(b) Power of expression. 

(c) An intimate acquaintance with some part of the store 
of human knowledge. 

(d) A development of the imagination. 

10. In giving his " new definition of the cultivated man " 
President Eliot elaborated the following four points : — 

I. " The moral sense of the modern world makes charac- 
ter a more important element than it used to be in the ideal 
of a cultivated man." 



ADMINISTRATION OF THE CURRICULUM «43 

II. " A cultivated man should express himself by tongue 
or pen with some accuracy and elegance." 

III. " The next great element in cultivation is acquaint- 
ance with some part of the store of knowledge which humanity 
in its progress from barbarism has acquired and laid up." 

IV. " The only other element in cultivation which time will 
permit me to treat is the training of the constructive imagi- 
nation." 

11. Vincent (77 : 117) enumerates " the demands which 
society may be conceived as making upon the individual 
through the process of education " as follows : — 

I. " A demand that the individual exercise and develop 
his capacities to such an extent that he shall be able to ' see 
straight and clear ; to remember ; to express thought with 
precision * (Eliot), and to have the body under conscious 
control." 

II. " That by means of language and other symbols the 
individual incorporate in his consciousness, so far as may be, 
the most general knowledge of his race, his nation, and his 
community." 

III. "That the individual possess himself in the fullest 
way of some part of the social tradition, either rational and 
sesthetic knowledge or manual dexterity or technical skill." 

IV. "That the individual contribute something by way 
of rectifying or enriching the collective inheritance of know- 
ledge, skill, taste, and ethical idealism." 

V. " That the individual recombine and elevate in his own 
personality the deepest truths and best ideals of the race and 
nation in such a way that his conduct may be both wise and 
ethical, i. e., in harmony with the best interests of society 
and of his own nature." 

COLLATERAL READING 

Hanus, a Modern School, 99-109. 

Harris, Psychologic Foundations of Education, 321-341. 

HoLLiSTER, High School Administration, 49-60. 



CHAPTER XIV 

THE AGENCIES THAT EDUCATE 

97. The Agencies Classified. The meaningof the word 
"education," as this word is generally used, has reference 
primarily to the instruction and training imparted by 
the school, with perhaps a minor reference to the influ- 
ences of the church and the home. But when education 
is defined as the adjustment of the individual to the life 
in which he must participate, it becomes evident that 
this interpretation of the word is too narrow. Education 
must be extended to include all those influences that 
tend to modify a person's future adjustments, whether 
they radiate from the school, the church, and the home, 
or not. The influences from every agency and condition 
of life may in this sense be educative. But these vari- 
ous agencies and conditions are not all equally planned 
with educational intent, and from our point of view they 
may be conveniently divided into two classes : (1) formal 
and (2) informal agencies of education. 

The informal agencies of education include all those 
agencies that tend to impart knowledge and modify dis- 
position in an incidental way. They include such agen- 
cies as social intercourse and vocational activity, whose 
primary function it is to achieve other than educational 
ends. The formal agencies include all those agencies that 
are definitely organized for educational ends. The pri- 
mary agency in this class is the school, but the apprentice 
system in industry and certain aspects of the church 



THE AGENCIES THAT EDUCATE 245 

and the home also fall into this class. There is obvi- 
ously no sharp dividing line between the two classes of 
agencies. 

98. The Formal Agencies of Education. The motives 
for the formal agencies of education have been referred 
to a number of times in the preceding pages. The accu- 
mulation of knowledge resulting from man's developed 
intelligence and the non-transmission of this knowledge 
through the germ plasm make formal education neces- 
sary, while the period of infancy increases this necessity 
and furnishes both time and plasticity therefor. In 
man's present state of development and civilization, 
formal education is not a matter of choice, but of neces- 
sity. Man's life has become so complex, and its essential 
elements are made up so largely of material that cannot 
be organically, or even incidentally transmitted, that the 
present form of civilization and progress could not be 
maintained without the formal agencies of education. 

99. The Evolution of the School. The evolution of 
the school in its details has varied among different 
peoples, but in general outline it appears to have been 
everywhere much the same. The, germs from which the 
school has developed may be discerned in the activities 
of the most^primitive^ tribes known, and it is to these 
tribes that we must turn for our elemental conceptions. 
Among these tribes we find social practices, including edu- 
cation, reduced to their lowest terms, which is very help- 
ful in leading us to a better understanding of our own 
highly complex social life. The primitive man must in 
essence meet the same problems that the civilized man 
has to meet. (1) He has to live and so must minister 
to his physical needs, and (2) he has theoretical or spir- 
itual needs to which he feels no less compelled to min- 



246 THE PRINaPLES OF EDUCATION 

ister. While interrelated, these two types of problems 
are measurably distinct, and they have remained so up 
to the present time. 

The practical education of the primitive man consists 
of training in those processes by means of which the 
needs of food, clothing, and shelter are satisfied. These 
needs make an insistent demand on every member of 
primitive society, yet in preparing to meet them there 
is little that can be called formal education. The child 
learns the processes of warfare, hunting, and fishing, 
either through play or through actual participation in 
the activities themselves. In his play he imitates the 
activities of his elders, just as all children do in their 
play, and in a measure this imitation is necessarily 
educative. The child's participation in the work of the 
adults is not for the sake of education, but for the sake 
of the work. The child's services are needed to help 
meet the practical necessities of life, and the education 
that he receives is in the main incidental. He learns by 
imitation, and the adult has no overt or systematic plan 
of instruction with regard to him. 

But in performing the practical work of life the 
child is not left to methods of his own invention. On 
the contrary, he is required to follow a definite and set 
routine, from which he is not allowed materially to de- 
viate. Weapons must be made, animals slain, and food 
prepared only in the approved fashion. The reason for 
this is found in the primitive man's conception of nature. 

The primitive man does not take things for what 
they seem, but back of every material object and phe- 
nomenal reality he posits an immaterial power that 
controls the material object and explains its behavior. 
The object is assumed to possess a spiritual "double'* 



THE AGENCIES THAT EDUCATE 247 

similar to the consciousness, or spiritual seK, that man 
himself is assumed to possess (53 : 2). This belief is 
called animism. 

The savage does not attain the conception of animism 
by a process of reflection, but rather as the result of 
a want of discrimination between the nature of his own 
existence and that of other phenomena, both animate 
and inanimate, in his environment. He naively attrib- 
utes to the things about him qualities and motives 
that he knows in himself and his fellows, and these 
qualities he takes for granted without analysis. When 
he speaks of an angry sea or a friendly wind, he is not 
using figures of speech, but is speaking literally. The 
notion of a " double " he infers from such phenomena as 
dreams, trances, reflections in the water, and shadows. 
His shadow is always a mystery to the savage, and he 
is able to account for it only as an attenuated other self. 
His dreams he interprets in a similar dualistic fashion. 
In them he apparently leaves his body and wanders 
about over the world much as he does when awake. He 
meets his friends, both living and dead, uses his dog, 
his weapons, his beast of burden, and in general has 
experiences with the objects of both physical and phe- 
nomenal reality. The natural assumption is that not 
only he himself, but also all the other objects that he 
meets must have doubles, for on what other basis could 
he meet and use them in his dreams ? He did not use 
them in the flesh, for his friends assure him that he has 
not left his bed. On this assumption the primitive 
man acts and builds his philosophy of life. 

The consequence of animism that is of especial inter- 
est to us is its relation to theoretical knowledge and 
education. If all the objects and phenomena in the 



248 THE PRINCIPLES OF EDUCATION 

primitive man's environment are endowed with mysteri- 
ous conscious powers, they must be treated accordingly. 
They must be recognized and appeased much as his 
friends and neighbors are recognized and appeased. But 
the problem of appeasing them is more subtile and 
difficult than it is with his fellows. It is impossible to 
converse with them, and their ways and demands must 
therefore be learned indirectly by means of trial and 
error. A successful accomplishment of an act is assumed 
to have been done in accordance with the will of the 
double involved, and the act must thereafter always 
be done in this manner. The will of the double is 
not easily learned, and when the knowledge has once 
been gained, it must be preserved. It is this that ac- 
counts in large part for the stereotyped methods and 
aversion to change that are characteristic of primitive 
life. Other forces involved are habit and social tradi- 
tion, but even these are explained as being the result 
of supernatural powers, and are therefore sacred. The 
savage is thus seen to have a definite theory of the 
world that is not without its influence on practical 
affairs. 

This animistic explanation of natural phenomena ap- 
pears on the surface very different from our scientific 
account, but in fundamental essence the two are entirely 
parallel. Both are theoretical explanations of observed 
phenomena. We account for these phenomena by means 
of unvarying and verifiable laws and principles, while 
the primitive man accounts for them by means of in- 
dwelling and capricious spirits. The preference between 
the two must turn on the verdict of experience, just 
as the preference between rival hypotheses must always 
turn. As a working hypothesis the primitive assump- 



THE AGENCIES THAT EDUCATE 249 

tion is entirely commendable, and there are no a priori 
means of ascertaining its falsity. The assumption might 
be correct, and the primitive method of placation might 
be the only adequate method of controlling nature. 
The accumulated experience of civilized races, however, 
has not borne out the assumption. Animism has not 
stood the test of experience in these races, and has 
therefore been displaced by the explanations of modern 
science, which are standing this test. But in recogniz- 
ing this defeat we need not disparage the primitive 
account. The consequences of this account illustrate 
in a forcible way that it is wise to act on the knowledge 
we have, even though this knowledge should ultimately 
prove to be false. From animism have been developed all 
our science, philosophy, and religion, and it is there- 
fore the historical basis of the church, the school, and 
a large part of our industrial life. 

Animism affects primitive life in all its aspects, mani- 
festing itself in ceremonies, dances, incantations, and 
puberty rites, as well as in stereotyped methods of work. > 
These ceremonies and incantations have as their purpose 
the placation of friendly, or the exorcism of evil spirits, 
and are practiced at the sick-bed, and before a hunt, a 
military expedition, a harvest, and every other impor- 
tant social activity. The ceremonies are accompanied by 
some explanations of myths, legends, traditions, and be- 
liefs, and so are incidentally educative. The educative 
function is especially characteristic of the puberty rites 
or initiation ceremonies. Near the onset of adolescence 
the primitive boy is initiated into the status of adult- 
hood by the men of the tribe, and the girl is initiated 
in a lesser degree by the women. The main purpose 
of these ceremonies appears to be to give moral and 



250 THE PRINCIPLES OF EDUCATION 

social training, for the youth is given especially severe 
practice in endurance, subordination, and self-control ; 
but totemic symbols and religious conceptions are also 
explained, thus bringing in a modicum of theoretical 
education. But this education is merely an incidental 
aspect of a religious rite, and cannot be looked upon as 
an agency of formal education. It is merely the germ of 
such an agency, which is not found till we come to the 
next higher stage of culture known as barbarism. 

Barbarism, as distinguished from savagery, begins 
at the point where the control of such natural forces as 
fire, water, and wind has been attained, and where stock 
is raised and the soil is beginning to be cultivated. The 
arts resulting from these achievements bring about a 
more settled state of life than is possessed by the savage, 
and the division of labor, beyond that based on the sexes, 
is definitely begun. This division of labor is not with- 
out its influence on the appearance of the school, but be- 
fore this institution has been definitely evolved, much time 
has still to elapse. Practical education is taken care of 
in barbarism much as it was in savagery. It continues 
to be carried on in the home and in life, although the 
arts it deals with have become considerably more com- 
plex. But theoretical education, which is bound up with 
the ceremonial activities, begins gradually to differen- 
tiate. 

In savagery all the members of the tribe participate 
in the ceremonial activities on a nearly equal footing, 
but with the division of labor in barbarism, this ceases 
to be the case. The ceremonial and religious duties grad- 
ually devolve upon those members of the tribe that show 
a special aptitude in dealing with the unfriendly spirits. 
These men are variously knoTV|^ by such names as sha- 



THE AGENCIES THAT EDUCATE 251 

mans, familiars, wizards, and medicine men. They be- 
come the leaders in all ceremonial performances, and in 
addition to their religious duties, the function of teach- 
ing also naturally falls to their lot. They instruct all the 
members of the tribe in the approved methods of work 
and in the ceremonial observances, and they give par- 
ticular instruction to the rising generation of medicine 
men. It is in connection with the latter function espe- 
cially that the school has developed. By the time the 
medicine men have evolved into a priesthood, writing 
has been invented and the ceremonial observances have 
been committed into a permanent form. In connection 
with this written record, cosmologies, philosophies, com- 
mentaries, and other forms of literature develop. Practi- 
cally all of this literature is of a religious nature, and it 
gives the priesthood a definite subject-matter for study. 
As this literature develops, more and more specialized 
educational activities are required, but these are in the 
main restricted to the priesthood through the entire 
period of barbarism. Only the exoteric instruction, con- 
sisting chiefly of formal directions pertaining to conduct 
and worship, is given to the people, while the theoreti- 
cal and literary instruction — the esoteric learning — is 
reserved for the priesthood alone, for whom schools 
are early established. But schools for the people do 
not appear till the next higher stage of civilization is 
reached. Such schools were not established among the 
Jews until shortly before the opening of the Christian 
era, and they were then adjuncts of the synagogues. 
Among the Mohammedans schools are stiU nearly always 
kept in the mosques. 

It thus becomes evident that historically the school 
has evolved from religion or the church. All theoretical / / 



252 THE PRINCIPLES OF EDUCATION 

knowledge has developed from the ceremonial and other 
activities of the church, and as this knowledge accumu- 
lated, formal instruction became more and more neces- 
sary until schools or universities for the priesthood be- 
came an actuality. With the advance of the industrial 
arts, which gave more and more economic leisure to the 
young, schools were gradually established for all the 
people. But these schools continued to be associated 
with the church until modern times. In America, Ger- 
many, and some other countries education has become one 
of the functions of the state, but the separation between 
the church and the school, taken the world over, is yet 
far from complete. In England, for example, there is 
still a dual control, but strenuous efforts are being made 
to bring about a complete separation, which promise 
soon to be successful. 

The whole evolution of the school may be traced in 
epitome by beginning with the overthrow of the Roman 
Empire by the Teutons. At the time of this overthrow, 
the Teutons were still in the stage of barbarism, and 
while they learned rapidly, they were apparently obliged 
to trace all the steps from barbarism to civilization. The 
culture of the Greeks and Romans was not directly 
appropriated by them, but they were compelled to grow 
irto it gradually. By the sixth century Greco-Roman 
c« Iture had died, and theoretical education and beliefs 
"^ere as completely in the control of the church as they 
are in barbaric society. For several centuries the con- 
ttnt of the intellectual life was quite closely confined to 
the Old and New Testaments and the Church Fathers. 
But after the time of Charlemagne, philosophical inquiry 
connected with religious dogmas began to develop. This 
inquiry took place within the church, and produced a 



THE AGENCIES THAT EDUCATE 253 

literature that corresponds roughly to the commentaries 
and philosophies that usually develop in connection with 
sacred literature. These inquiries received a great im- 
petus in the twelfth century by the rediscovery of Aris- 
totle and other ancient writers, and philosophy was soon 
on the highway to independence from religion. Science, 
which was in part an offshoot from philosophy and in 
part a separate growth in the intellectual soil cultivated 
by philosophy and religion, shared in this independence. 
Hand in hand with the branching of philosophy and 
science from religion occurred the branching of the 
school from the church. 

100. The Church. In tracing the evolution of the 
school we have also traced the evolution of the church. 
Many essential details for even a brief outline have 
necessarily been omitted, but these need not now be sup- 
plied. The church is the mother of the school, and there- 
fore has in the past played a most fundamental part in 
formal education. The differentiation of function in 
society, however, has removed the heart of formal edu- 
cation from the church and placed it in the school. But 
this does not leave the church with no formal educa^ 
tional functions to perform, at least not for the present, 
and especially not in America. Because the church and 
the state are separate in America, and because religion 
has not yet been fully rationalized by the method and 
spirit of science, religious instruction cannot be, or rather 
is not, included in the public schools; and since the 
Christian religion centers in the literature of the He- 
brews, the child is left ignorant of this literature by the 
school. But this literature forms one of the most precious 
sections of our racial inheritance, and therefore is too 
valuable to be lost. The task of transmitting it to the 



254 THE PRINCIPLES OF EDUCATION 

child falls to the lot of the home and the church, espe- 
cially to the church. The church must make a systematic 
attempt to acquaint the child with our religious history, 
literature, and beliefs by means of the Sunday school. 
But before the Sunday school can effectively discharge 
this function, it must be more generally recognized as an 
educational agency, it must be taken more seriously by 
society at large, and its work must be more thoroughly 
graded, systematized, and psychologized. By the last 
term is meant that the work must be definitely adapted 
to the needs and interests of the child, just as the master- 
pieces of other literatures are adapted to the needs and 
interests of the child in the public schools. In addition 
to the Bible, the history and geography of Palestine and 
the history of the church should also be studied in the 
Sunday school. 

The regular church services as now conducted exist 
primarily for worship and only secondarily for instruc- 
tion. They are at best only a semi-formal educational 
agency. People go to church to be edified, to nourish, 
rather than to rationalize, the faith they have, and to 
have a pleasant meeting with friends and acquaintances. 
The members of the church are mostly adults who have 
largely lost their plasticity for mental acquisition, and 
therefore they need the church not so much for the ex- 
tension of their knowledge as for the exercise of their 
religious and social nature, for a stimulation and cor- 
roboration of their beliefs, and for the maintenance of 
a life of integrity and Christian charity. In assisting 
the maintenance of a Christian life, the service of the 
church renders a training that is distinctly educative. 

10 1. The Home. The home, like the church, is pri- 
marily an institution for life and only secondarily an 



THE AGENCIES THAT EDUCATE 255 

institution for education. Or, perhaps better, the home 
has a number of coordinate functions to perform of which 
education is but one. Among these functions are the pro- 
viding of food, clothing, and shelter, and the conditions 
of a wholesome and happy life in general. But the edu- 
cational function should also be explicitly borne in mind 
by parents. Parents should first of all assume an intel- 
ligent interest in the services that the school and the 
church are discharging toward their children, to the end 
that they may cooperate in making the work of these 
institutions more effective. In the second place, parents 
should aim consciously to supplement the other educa- 
tional agencies, especially at those points that are left 
relatively untouched by them. Such points are the train- 
ing in rational obedience, in cleanliness, in courtesy, in 
refinement of manner, in integrity, in kindliness, in the 
conventions, privileges, and diversions of social life, in 
the accomplishments of music and dancing, and in the 
development of special gifts. All of these cannot be un-, 
dertaken directly by the parents, but the parents should 
see to it that they are achieved. Instruction in vocal and 
instrumental music, for example, must usually be pro- 
vided for by special teachers, but the parents should 
see that these teachers are engaged and that the chil- 
dren carry out their part of the work. 

102. The Apprentice System. Until recently a con- 
siderable amount of at least semi-formal education of the 
practical type was carried on by means of the apprentice 
system in life, but this is rapidly growing less. With 
the advance of applied science and the concentration and 
specialization of industry, it is becoming economically 
preferable to engage workers that have already been 
trained. This is throwing technical education on the for- 



256 THE PRINCIPLES OF EDUCATION 

mal agency of the school, a tendency that we have had 
occasion to note several times in the preceding chapters. 
This tendency is removing the last vestige of formal 
education from vocational activity, and is shifting this 
activity entirely into the class of informal educational 
agencies. 

Practical education and vocational schools did not 
evolve from the church as did theoretical education. In 
the past the practical training of the masses has been 
quite distinct from the training of the clergy, philoso- 
phers, and men of science. This training was carried on 
either by the home, by the apprentice system, or by guild 
schools^ As a consequence, the study of arithmetic for 
commercial purposes and technical knowledge of various 
kinds were not looked upon as educative. This breach 
between theoretical and practical education still exists, 
although it is gradually becoming narrower. Theory and 
practice and the cultural and utilitarian are slowly but 
surely coming together for the mutual advantage of each. 
The practical is being idealized, and the cultural is being 
extended to enrich the lives of all alike. 

103. The Informal Agencies. The informal agencies 
of education include every activity of life not yet dis- 
cussed in this chapter, and many aspects of the activi- 
ties that have been discussed. Special mention may be 
made of libraries, the daily and periodical press, voca- 
tional and governmental activities, lyceum lectures, 
meetings and conferences, travel, social intercourse, the 
theater, and the playground. None of these agencies 
exist primarily for the purposes of instruction and train- 
ing, but instruction and training are nevertheless note- 
worthy results that follow in their wake. The library 
should probably be classed as a semi-formal educational 



THE AGENCIES THAT EDUCATE 257 

agency, for librarians aim to make the use of the library 
definitely instructive, especially in the children's de- 
partment. Vocational activity effectively modifies dis- 
position through the responsibility that it imposes, and 
it aids in impressing upon the individual the fact of so- 
cial interdependence. The state is incidentally educative 
through the administration of justice and through the 
observance of law and order that it demands. The strong 
arm of the law develops a respect that may to a consid- 
erable extent become generalized. Lectures, meetings, 
and conferences are meant to be instructive as well as 
entertaining, and they are usually successful in serving 
both functions. Social intercourse is its own reward, 
but we gain from it many a bit of knowledge and de- 
portment in addition. Travel forms one of the most 
effective liberalizing agencies in the whole round of 
life's activities, the formal instruction of the school not 
excepted. In higher education this is recognized, and 
one's schooling is not considered complete without some 
foreign as well as domestic travel. Travel gives genuine 
meaning to the concepts of other peoples and places, 
widens one's sympathies, and removes many a preju- 
dice. The theater is primarily a place of recreation and 
entertainment, but neither of these two functions neces- 
sarily excludes instruction and moral uplift. The drama 
has impressed many a moral and social lesson, and it 
has done this with an effectiveness that rivals the lessons 
received from the experiences of real life. 

The playground has hitherto been an educational 
agency entirely of the informal type, but in our larger 
cities this agency is in a measure becoming formalized. 
There can be no question that the social and moral 
training the child derives from the give-and-take experi- 



258 THE PRINCIPLES OF EDUCATION 

ences on the playground is of profound service in later 
life. It gives the child self-control, facility in dealing 
with others, and it lays the basis for genuine moral ap- 
preciation. The value of this training can undoubtedly 
be increased by a certain amount of supervision. The 
supervisor gives direct training in fairness and courtesy 
by leading the children to practice and appreciate fair 
play and consideration, and he is a means to a richer 
fund of experience by making possible a greater variety 
of amusements. 

104. Summary. The agencies of education are both 
formal and informal. These two classes are mutually 
supplementary, and both play an essential role in life. 
Because of its close connection with the actualities of 
life, informal education is especially effective, but it 
lacks in being unsystematic and in restricting its oper- 
ations to the occasions at hand. It impresses only 
the experiences that happen to come, making no overt 
attempt at completeness and organization for the more 
effective control of future adjustments, and it leaves 
a large mass of valuable racial experience untouched. 
The wisdom of bygone ages is but scantily used. Formal 
education, on the other hand, is likely to lack in con- 
creteness and reality, but it has the advantages of being 
systematic, complete, economical, and generally effective. 
An overt attempt is made to bring all members of the 
rising generation under the influence of the school, 
everything valuable to the race, regardless of the time 
or place of its origin, is aimed to be included in the 
curriculum, and logical organization and completeness 
are guiding principles throughout. The charge of lack 
of concreteness and reality can be, and is being, over- 
come by proper schoolroom methods. 



THE AGENCIES THAT EDUCATE 259 

EXERCISES 

1. What arguments may be advanced for the public endow- 
ment of the theater ? 

2. Has the method of placation been entirely displaced by 
scientific explanation in modern life ? 

3. To what extent should children be allowed free associa- 
tion with all kinds of children on the playground ? Why ? 

4. How might the Sunday school be made more effective 
as an educational agency? (See J. V. Collins in Educa- 
tional Review, xxxvii, 271 f.) 

5. What are the fundamental elements that should be in- 
cluded in religious education? Can these be distinguished 
from moral education ? 

6. Mention some specific elements of cooperation that the 
school may rightly expect of the home. Mention some that 
the home may rightly expect of the school. 

7. Can this statement be justified : " The school was first 
in the home, and by growth became a separate institution as 
an extension of the home. The teacher is still said to be in 
loco parentis '^ (36:1). 

8. The claim is frequently made that religious instruction 
is necessary for the education of the heart and for morality. 
Is this claim justifiable ? (See D. W. LaRue in Educa- 
tional Review, xxxvii, 468 f.) 

9. Distinguish between the life-giving and the educative 
functions of the daily, weekly, and periodical press. Point out 
by concrete instances that the two functions may sometimes 
be incompatible. May it be arbitrarily said that one of these 
functions should always be primary ? 

r COLLATERAL READING 

Bagley, Educative Process, 23-39. 

Harris, Psychologic Foundations of Education, 264-269. 

HoRNE, Philosophy of Education, 1-6. 

Monroe, Text-Book in the History of Education, 1-15. 

O'Shea, Education as Adjustment, 57-60. 



CHAPTER XV 

THE PSYCHOLOGICAL BASES OF TEACHING 

(A) Instincty Interest, Habit 

105. Fundamental Bases. According to the analysis 
of the field of education given in the introductory chap- 
ter, we have now completed the survey of the ground 
that belongs to the Principles of Education. We have 
studied the bases on which education rests, we have can- 
vassed the various conceptions of the aim of education, 
we have resolved the value of education into its ele- 
ments, we have given an exposition of the curriculum 
and its essential parts, we have discussed the principles 
underlying the course of study, and we have considered 
the agencies through which education is accomplished. 
All these topics deal primarily with the what and the 
why of education, but the last two distinctly approach 
the question of the how of education as well. A detailed 
consideration of this question belongs to the Principles 
of Teaching, a province that it is not our purpose to sur- 
vey, but it will not be out of place to consider the psy- 
chological bases on which the teaching process ultimately 
rests. I^ considering these bases, we shall restrict our- 
selves to the discussion of fundamental principles only, 
leaving the details to the text-books in the Principles 
of Teaching. 

Teaching is made possible (1) by thejn^tmctlve. ac- 
tivities of the mind, (2) by the modifiability of the 



THE PSYCHOLOGICAL BASES OF TEACHING 261 

tissue of the nervous system, and (3) by tlie assimilative 
power of the mind. These give us the pedagogical topics 
(1) of interest and attention, (2) of habit and mem-' 
cry, and (3) of apperception and reasoning. 

io6. Instincts and Capacities. The mind is not a static 
thing that has to be aroused into activity by the teacher. 
^Activity is an inherent phenomenon of life, and it is 
expressed both through the body and the mind. When 
awake, people's minds are always active. Man thinks and 
acts not only under the stress of some physical need, but 
for the mere pleasure that he derives from the activi- 
ties. These activities are not without law, taking place 
entirely in a chaotic and unorganized fashion, but they 
are prompted and directed by instincts and capacities 
which manifest themselves as impulses to feel and to act 
in measurably definite directions. 

Man apparently has all the instincts possessed by 
the vertebrates beneath him, and he far outstrips his 
lower brethren in the development of his intellect, which 
manifests itself in the capacities for knowledge and 
understanding. Among the instinctive powers that enter 
into the activities of the school may be mentioned the 
exercise of the senses, desire for activity, sympathy, fair- 
ness, sociability, friendship, love of animals and moving 
things, desire to be noticed, emulation, fear, pugnacity, 
ownership, imitation, constructiveness, love of beauty, 
selective attention, the desire to know, and the capacity 
to understand. Play, which is usually mentioned as an 
instinct, is more properly looked upon as the result of 
the exercise of the various instincts that we have men- 
tioned. These instincts inherently crave activity, and 
when they are being exercised primarily for the pleasure 
of the activity, the phenomenon is called " play." 



262 THE PRINCIPLES OF EDUCATION 

107. Interests. Instincts and capacities are of con- 
cern to us in education because they manifest themselves 
as interests. Every instinctive power manifests itself in 
its own peculiar t3rpe of interest. The child is natively 
interested in other people, in making friends, in animals, 
in being noticed, in assisting his fellows, in excelling 
them, in property, in construction, in seeing, hearing, 
and touching things, in pictures, and in understanding 
the objects and phenomena about him. These interests 
are not static but active. They continually prompt the 
child to enter into relationship with the things in his 
environment in active ways. This makes the problem 
of teaching far less one of arousing interests than of 
directing them. 

Psychologically, interest may be looked upon both 
from the objective and the subjective point of view. 
Objectively, interest always attaches to some thing, 
phenomenon, or relation. That is, interest always has 
an object. We are not merely interested, but we are 
interested in something. We are interested in books, 
animals, plants, business, friends, studies, and so on. 
Subjectively, interest is characterized by Reeling that 
attaches to the intellectual representation of the object of 
interest. To be interested in a thing means to have a 
certain feeling toward that thing, and this feeling is the 
bond that holds the object in the focus of attention. It 
represents, or is, the worth of the object for us. 

The feeling that is concerned in interest is not re- 
stricted to any one particular group or quality, but it 
may involve any or all the feelings of which we are cap- 
able, and these may be either pleasant or unpleasant. 
We usually think of the feelings that characterize inter- 
est as being pleasant, but this is not necessarily the case. 



THE PSYCHOLOGICAL BASES OF TEACHIxNG 263 

We may be interested in other people because of fear 
and hatred as well as love and sympathy, and a piece 
of bad news may arouse the keenest interest. Grief and 
worry may not let their objects escape the attention for 
^riays. Both pleasant and unpleasant feelings are bound 
up with activity, but while one, generally speaking, 
attracts, the other repels. 

The production of action is not a third aspect of 
interest that is added to the objective and the feeling 
aspects, but it is the immediate physical counterpart 
of the feeling side of interest itself. Feeling and action 
cannot be divorced except by mental abstraction, which 
divorces both from reality. Feeling is but the aware- 
ness of the motive or impulse for action, and the action 
always accompanies the motive unless it is inhibited by 
another motive. 

1 08. Interests and Education. The first distinction 
that should be made in considering the relation of in- 
terests to education is the distinction between their use as 
ends and as means. The failure to make this distinction 
has produced both errors in teaching and confusion in 
theoretical discussions. Teachers are looking upon in- 
terests as ends whenever they are aiming to encourage 
desirable ancTto discourage undesirable interests; and 
they are looking upon interests as means whenever they 
are using them as motives for the accomplishment of 
ends other than the immediate objects of the interests 
themselves. 

The use of interests as ends is illustrated by getting 
people genuinely interested in literature, history, science, 
philosophy, teaching, law, business, and the like. It is 
for the development of these interests that the school 
ultimately exists, and when they have become estab- 



264 THE PRINCIPLES OF EDUCATION 

lished, it means that permanent relationships between 
the self and the objects or activities in question have 
been developed. An interest in literature thus comes to 
mean a line of activity that is recurrently capable of 
yielding a high type of satisfaction, and because of this 
satisfaction is recurrently sought. 

The use of interests as means arises from the fact 
that it is sometimes impossible, or at least difficult, di- 
rectly to interest a child in a desirable activity. When 
a case of this kind arises, we may fall back upon the 
psychological principle of the irradiation of feeling and 
use another interest as a means. It is a psychological 
fact that an object not interesting in itself may be made 
interesting by associating it with an object that is inter- 
esting. The interest inhering in the one will spread to 
the other, and this spreading need in no way decrease 
the intensity of the interest. It may indeed increase it 
so that the combination is more interesting than either 
portion was at the beginning. A child in the lower 
grades may feel no interest in learning the fundamental 
processes of arithmetic, but he may be intensely inter- 
ested in games, and this interest may be made to do ser- 
vice in the arithmetic. The games may be so arranged 
as to involve addition, subtraction, multiplication, and 
division, and when a quick and ready knowledge of 
these processes is necessary to win, the chances are that 
they will become interesting too. In a similar way a 
child's native interest in scribbling may be used in writ- 
ing and drawing, his interests in collecting and in pic- 
tures may be used in nature study and geography, his 
interest in communication in reading and language, and 
so on. The pedagogical principle involved may be stated 
as follows: Begin with a native interest, or an interest 



THE PSYCHOLOGICAL BASES OF TEACHING 265 

already acquired, and graft upon it the new thing you 
wish to teach. If this is skillfully done, the original 
interest will radiate to the new thing taught, but it 
requires native skill and tact, as well as psychological 
knowledge, to apply this principle. 

The interests that the teacher may use as means in 
education are as numerous as the elements of human 
nature themselves. A common mistake is made by ap- 
pealing only to such abstract and remote interests as 
duty, love of truth, and future usefulness, forgetting 
that all the native interests mentioned above, as well as 
all acquired interests, may be properly appealed to in 
the schoolroom. Emulation, praise, pugnacity, love of 
friends and parents spur us on in life, and they need 
be found no less useful as spurs in the school. Many 
of these interests are natively so strong that they sel- 
dom need encouragement as ends ; in fact, as ends they 
may need discouragement, but this does not interfere 
with their use as means. 

109. Right and Wrong Uses of Interest. The use of 
interest in education has been attended by many bless- 
ings, but it has brought along also a number of pitfalls 
and difficulties. On the one hand, it has given us our 
vital methods of instruction and delightful school-days, 
but on the other hand, it has brought forward the charge 
of " soft pedagogy " and the claim that our teaching 
lacks virility and moral stamina. This dual situation 
arises from the fact that interest may be used in wrong 
as weU as in right ways, 

"^ Interest is used wrongly (1) by letting the capricious 
impulses and desires of the child determine the subject- 
matter of instruction, and (2) by endeavoring to get 
the child's attention to the subjects taught by means of 



266 THE PRINCIPLES OF EDUCATION 

external and artificial devicea. The first error consists 
in the fact that the impulses of the child are taken as 
guides by the teacher instead of being guided by him. 
If strictly followed, as it never is in practice, this doc- 
trine would lead the race back to barbarism. To say 
that the child's instincts should be used in education 
cannot be taken to mean that they should be trusted 
and followed, but that they should be studied and used 
as means of leading the child to higher levels. Educa- 
tion has a preparatory as well as an immediate life-giv- 
ing function, and therefore must look ahead. The asser- 
tion of Dewey that "Education is not preparation for 
life, it is life," should be changed to read, "Education 
is a preparation for life through life." 

The second error has been given the epithet of 
"sugar-coating." It is pedagogically wrong because it 
centers the attention of the learner upon the wrong 
thing. Instead of centering the attention upon the 
subject-matter taught, it centers it upon the devices 
and entertainment by which the subject-matter is sur- 
rounded, and as a result the real purpose of the lesson 
is likely to be left unaccomplished. Such devices are legit- 
imate only when they are used as points of departure for 
a genuine interest in the subject-matter itself, and they 
are illegitimate to the extent that they fail to bring about 
such interest, no matter how much pleasure and enter- 
tainment they may yield in themselves. 

The right uses of interest in education have been given 
by implication in pointing out the wrong uses. They are 
the direct counterparts of the wrong uses that we have 
just discussed. Interest is used rightly (1) by adapt- 
ing the subject-matter of instruction to the present ex- 
periences, powers, and needs of the child, and (2) by 



THE PSYCHOLOGICAL BASES OF TEACHING 267 

presenting this subject-matter so that the child will 
appreciate its worth for him. In ultimate analysis, the 
subject-matter of instruction cannot be chosen by the 
child himself, but must be selected by standards that 
are fully appreciated only by the adult. ^ But after it 
has been selected, it must then be organized and adapted 
according to the powers and needs of the child. Adult 
standards decide, for example, that history should be 
taught, but the present powers and needs of the child 
determine the order of its presentation. The subject 
has to be rewritten from the standpoint of the child, and 
presented in successive cycles that are suited to the 
status of the child. 

The second item in the right use of interest refers to 
the use of motives and devices as means. Native and 
acquired interests may be legitimately appealed to in 
teaching. In fact, they are the only helps to which the 
teacher can appeal, but this appeal must ever keep the 
subject-matter of instruction in the foreground of at- 
tention. Pictures and museum specimens may indeed be 
used to bring added interest to the geography class, but 
this interest should ultimately center in the geogra- 
phical knowledge acquired, and not in the pictures and 
specimens as such. The teacher uses interests prop- 
erly when through them he leads the child to appreciate 
the worth of the subject-matter of instruction for him. 

no. Interest and Effort. By effort is meant the en- 
ergy and determination expended in reaching the goal 
of one's interests or desires. Pedagogically, this pre- 
sents no separate problem from the proper use of interest 
itself, for it is a link in the same chain with interest. 
Genuine and legitimate effort is aroused only when the 

* Cf. chapters vii and viii. 



268 THE PRINCIPLES OF EDUCATION 

end to be gained is seen to be worthy or interesting ; and 
the greater the interest, the greater the effort that may 
be aroused in attaining the end. Energy expended in at- 
taining an end whose worth is not recognized should not 
be dignified by the word " effort," but should be called 
" strain." A large expenditure of energy is neces- 
sary in cases of this kind, and a feeling akin to effort, 
but distinctly disagreeable, is aroused. This feeling, 
however, is disagreeable not only because much energy 
is expended, but because there is a division of motives 
within the self that is wasteful of energy. While the self 
would really prefer to do one thing, it is externally 
compelled to do another, and this literally brings about 
a condition of strain that devours energy, and that 
would prove morally harmful if persisted in. The remedy 
is to be found in the proper application of the doctrine 
of interest. If possible, the person concerned should at 
once be led to realize the worth of the end for which 
he is striving, but if not, a temporary use of artificial 
incentives must be resorted to. 

With the exception of some ramifications into which 
lack of space forbids us to enter, this, in outline, is the re- 
lation of interest and effort according to scientific psy- 
chology. There are, however, still in existence remnants 
of a slowly dying scholastic psychology with which this 
account is completely at variance. Instead of regard- 
ing the self or the will as consisting of the instincts 
and capacities organized into a functional unity, this 
psychology regards it as an entity distinct and apart 
from these instincts and capacities. The self on this 
assumption becomes an object on which interests and 
impulses may act, swaying it one way or another, and 
effort becomes the feeling of the activity of that self or 



THE PSYCHOLOGICAL BASES OF TEACHING 269 

will in opposing these interests and impulses. Interest 
and effort thus become opposed and incompatible. In- 
terest is interpreted as having always a base meaning 
(17 : 35-36), and the desired victory is won when it 
is subdued. With this account of the relation of inter- 
est and effort, the conception outlined above cannot be 
reconciled. The difference between the two is ultimately 
a metaphysical one, and to be consistent, one must choose 
between them ; and if one wishes to be scientifically con- 
sistent, one must choose the former account. 

III. Retentiveness. In addition to the instincts and ca- 
pacities that manifest themselves in action and conduct 
on the one side, and in conscious feelings and powers 
on the other, nerve tissue possesses also the character- 
istic of modifiability. This is a characteristic that is 
possessed not only by nerve tissue, but by all living 
tissue, and even by inanimate matter that is not liquid 
or gaseous. It arises out of the physical fact that when 
the molecules of a substance are disturbed, they do not 
fully resume their original positions. 

The psychological and educational importance of the 
modifiability of nerve tissue is obvious. It is a condition 
without which neither intelligence nor education would 
be possible. The sign of intelligence is the ability to 
profit by past experience, and the sign of educated intel- 
ligence includes in addition the ability to profit by the 
accumulated experiences of others, but neither of these 
would be possible without the ability to retain experi- 
ences to begin with. This makes retentiveness abso- 
lutely fundamental in mental life and education, but it is 
not the sole fundamental. A high development of the 
instinctive powers is no less necessary. These powers 
provide and manipulate the experiences, and all that 



270 THE PRINCIPLES OF EDUCATION 

retentiveness does is to record them. It may do this 
equally well for the lowest vertebrate as for the great- 
est genius. The differences in mental ability may be 
quite unrelated to native retentiveness, even though no 
mental power whatsoever would be possible without it. 

Retentiveness in nerve tissue follows the law of asso- 
ciation and manifests itself on the physical side as habit 
and on the conscious side as associative memory. Any 
movement or mental action that has once taken place 
in response to a situation is likely to recur in a similar 
situation. The original response is guided by instinct, but 
the instinctive response may be modified and relatively 
displaced by habit, and by the guidance of consciousness 
acting on the basis of the data furnished by associative 
memory. 

112. Habit Formation. All habits ultimately arise 
out of instinctive tendencies to movement, but they do 
so in various degrees of directness and complexity. On 
the one extreme a habit may arise directly from an in- 
stinctive movement that it closely resembles, while on 
the other extreme it may arise out of a multitude of^ 
instinctive movements and other habits, no one of which 
it closely resembles. Between these two extremes may 
lie habits of all degrees of difference in their relation to 
instinctive movements and other habits. The suckling 
instinct in infants and the pecking instinct in chicks 
give rise to the type of habits that lie near the first ex- 
treme, while speaking and writing may be mentioned as 
habits that lie near the second extreme. Suckling and 
pecking are done instinctively to begin with, but they 
soon harden into habits. These habits are each selected 
from but one instinctive movement which they closely 
resemble. There is reason to think that the instincts on 



THE PSYCHOLOGICAL BASES OF TEACHING 271 

which they are based are transient, as the instinct of the 
chick to follow the hen and that of the duck to swim 
certainly are. This makes it necessary for the habit to 
arise early in order to continue the activity which in 
each case is necessary to continue the life of the organ- 
ism. Nature appears to be ultra-economical in the dis- 
position of its energies. Habits are the most economi- 
cal reactions that an organism has, and nature provides 
that they must take the place of instincts wherever this 
is possible. 

Speaking and writing cannot each be traced to a 
single instinct from which it takes its rise. On the 
contrary, each is selected from a multitude of native 
reactions. The child naturally makes a great variety of 
sounds and mouth movements, and from these only one 
coordinated set is commonly selected to be used in lin- 
guistic expression. The selection in this case is appar- 
ently made entirely from instinctive movements, for it 
is made so early in the child's life that probably none 
of these movements have had time to crystallize into 
habits. The habit of writing with a pen or a pencil is 
selected from a variety of instinctive arm and finger 
movements, for man does not possess an instinct to 
write any more than he possesses an instinct to speak 
a particular language. But writing is learned after 
many arm and finger movements have become habitual, 
and therefore forms a good example of a habit selected 
from both instinctive movements and previous habits. 

Writing effectively illustrates another factor in habit 
formation, in addition to the factor of selection and the 
relation of habit to instinct and to other habits. This 
is the factor of association. Writing does not consist of 
one single movement like the pecking reflex of the chick, 



272 THE PRINaPLES OF EDUCATION 

but it is composed of a variety of movements connected 
or associated together. This " connectedness " is a fea- 
ture of all habits and has to be acquired. In simple 
habits it consists of the connection between tbe stimu- 
lus and the response. Its physical basis is again the 
modifiability of nerve tissue. The elemental movements 
in a habit are at first made in succession under the guid- 
ance of consciousness, but as the habit becomes estab- 
lished, these become welded together into one series of 
automatic movements. 

The material out of wMch habits are formed may 
now be summarized as consisting of instincts and other 
habits, while the method of habit formation may be 
summarized by the words " selection," " association," and 
" repetition." To this list should in many cases be added 
the intellectual possession of the ybrm of the movement 
to be accomplished. Thus in learning to write, a pupil 
should be taught how to hold his pen and how to move 
his arm and fingers. The idea of the form in all phys- 
ical actions is more effectively given by example than 
by precept. Repetition is necessary to fix a habit, but 
the habit is really begun with the very first movement. 

The motives that initiate the formation of habits are 
various, but those that lead the learner to persist in his 
efforts may all be summarized by the word " satisfac- 
tion." The primary motive in learning to speak, for 
example, is the impulse and desire to imitate, while in 
learning to write, such motives as emulation, pleasing 
the teacher, imitation, obedience to request, and fear 
of punishment may aU enter in varying degrees. But 
when the action has been accomplished, satisfaction 
results in each case, and this is the primary force that 
impels the learner to continue in his efforts. 



THE PSYCHOLOGICAL BASES OF TEACHING 273 

This discussion of the formation of habits contains 
by implication the principles for breaking habits. In 
breaking an undesirable habit, a strong motive for doing 
so should first be made to dominate the mind of the 
pupil, and the teacher should then see to it that there- 
after the manifestation of the habit is followed by dis- 
satisfaction. Whenever possible, another habit should 
be substituted for the undesirable one. A teacher who is 
aiming to have his pupils correct an ungrammatical ex- 
pression that has become habitual should first lead them 
to realize the error and then to appreciate the right form. 
This done, the right form should receive drill in atten- 
tion, and for some time thereafter careful watch should 
be kept over the expression by the teacher. Every lapse 
into the wrong form should be promptly checked. With 
young children whose language is still plastic, wrong 
expressions may usually be adequately corrected by 
merely suggesting the right form in a quiet way and 
having the child adopt it in place of the wrong one. 
This will in time lead to the establishment of the right 
form, but drill on these forms is also highly in place in 
the primary grades. 

EXERCISES 

1. What is the relation of previous knowledge to interest ? 

2. Distinguish between the logical and psychological points 
of view. Between instincts and capacities. 

3. Distinguish between interest and attention. After atten- 
tion has been gained, what is the next psychological step ? 

4. Is scientific consistency, i. e., a thoroughgoing rational- 
ization of knowledge, an instinctive demand of all minds ? 

5. Illustrate the use of interest as an end in teaching his- 
tory ; botany ; German. Illustrate its use as a means in these 
subjects. 



274 THE PRINCIPLES OF EDUCATION 

6. Distinguish psychologically between work and play. Be- 
tween work and drudgery. Is drudgery ever necessary in 
school work ? Justify your answer. 

7. Discuss : " The great problem of education is how to 
induce the pupil to go through with a course of exertion, in 
its result good and even agreeable, but immediately and in 
itself irksome." — Alexander Hamilton. 

8. Distinguish between natural and artificial incentives. 
An association not connected with any school offers a prize for 
an essay. Is this prize a natural or an artificial incentive ? Is 
a scholarship society, such as the Phi Beta Kappa, a natural 
or an artificial incentive ? Are artificial incentives ever justi- 
fiable in school ? What is their baneful psychological effect ? 

9. Discuss : " As a final test by which to judge any plan 
of culture, should come the question, — Does it create a 
pleasurable excitement in the pupil ? When in doubt whether 
a particular mode or arrangement is or is not more in har- 
mony with the foregoing principles than some other, we may 
safely abide by this criterion. Even when, as considered theo- 
retically, the proposed course seems the best, yet if it produce 
no interest, or less interest than another course, we should 
relinquish it ; for a child's intellectual instincts are more trust- 
worthy than our reasonings " (70 : 127). 

10. Contrast the following quotations : — 

a. " In this sphere [volition] we have a special name 
for those thoughts which influence us directly and lead us to 
action ; we call such thoughts Motives. We also have a special 
name for the sort of action which is prompted by clearly 
thought-out motives : Will." — Baldwin. 

b. '' In the capacity for attention we find the key to the 
freedom of the will. Voluntary attention makes the motive. 
Motive does not make the attention. . . . By sheer force of 
will power, many a one has withdrawn his attention from cer- 
tain temptations, centered it elsewhere, and thus developed 
a counter motive." — Halleck. 

11. Point out the agreement or disagreement of the follow- 
ing views of effort with that adopted in the text : — 



THE PSYCHOLOGICAL BASES OF TEAdHNG 275 

a. " It [effort] is the will to do one's duty when one 
doesn't want to." — Horne. 

b. "It [effort] is adventitious and indeterminate in ad- 
vance. We can make more or less as we please, and if we 
make enough, we can convert the greatest mental resistance 
in the least." — William James. 

c. " Our consciousness of effort is a consciousness of the 
emotional kind, in which a very large group of sensations of 
muscular tension is present. Commonly, too, the affective tone 
of the experience is distinctly unpleasant." — Angell. 

d. " Keep the faculty of effort alive in you by a little 
gratuitous exercise every day. That is, be systematically as- 
cetic or heroic in little unnecessary points, do every day or 
two something for no other reason than that you would rather 
not do it." — William James. 

e. " True effort consists in reinforcing by additional ideas, 
desires, and motives the side felt to be the weaker. It may 
be true that action follows the strongest desire, but it is also 
true that we have the power to call up considerations and 
feelings that strengthen and that weaken the force of de- 
sire" — McClellan and Dewey. 

COLLATERAL READING 

Bagley, Educative Process, 95-127. 
Dewey, School and Society, 47-73. 
James, Talks to Teachers, 38-115. 
KiRKPATRiCK, Inductive Psychology, 93-103. 
Thorndike, Elements of Psychology, 187-213. 
Thorndike, Principles of Teaching, chaps, iii, v, vii, and viii. 



CHAPTER XVI 

THE PSYCHOLOGICAL BASES OF TEACHING 

(B) Memory, Perception, Inference 

113. Associative Memory. What habit is on the 
physical side, the association of ideas is on the mental 
side. An idea follows a sensory stimulus or another idea 
just as an habitual movement follows a sensory stimulus 
or another movement. We do not recall an idea by merely 
issuing a mental summons to the effect that the idea 
should forthwith come to consciousness, but we bring 
the idea back by means of its associates. In recalling a 
person's name, for example, we cannot do so directly, but 
we must proceed by thinking of the person's appearance, 
of the words or sounds that his name resembles, of the 
places and situations in which we have seen him and have 
perhaps spoken his name, and so on, trusting that one 
of these will bring the name back to consciousness. If 
these things do not recall the name, we cannot make it 
come, for the mind has no other way of recalling ideas. 

Psychologists usually make the statement that ideas 
are associated and later revived according to two prin- 
ciples, contiguity and similarity. The sight of Mr. B. 
may remind me of a picnic at which we were together 
a year ago, or it may remind me of Mr. G., whom B. 
resembles. In the first case one idea brings up another 
because the two have been contiguous in the mind at 
some previous time, while in the second case the revival 



THE PSYCHOLOGICAL BASES OF TEACHING 277 

occurs because of a similarity between the two. In revi- 
val by similarity, the two ideas need never to have been 
objectively perceived together, but in revival by con- 
tiguity, this simultaneous perception is an indispensable 
condition. 

From the logical standpoint, these two types of asso- 
ciation are different, and it is expedient to look upon 
them as different in education, but psychologically they 
follow the operation of the same principle. This prin- 
ciple may be stated as follows : There is a tendency in 
the mind for any mental state to call up that mental 
state lolth ichich it, or any part of it, has been con- 
nected in the past. Mental or brain connection is psy- 
chologically the only basis on which one idea can call 
up another, although objectively or logically this con- 
nection may be brought about in several different ways. 
Ideas that are experienced together become connected 
in consciousness by this fact, for by being experienced 
together they are made parts of one and the same state 
of consciousness. But similar ideas are also mentally 
connected by the fact that they arouse similar and even 
identical states of consciousness. Neurologically, ideas 
are similar because they are connected in whole or in 
part with the same brain areas. If through similarity 
B.'s eyes remind one of G.'s, it is because psychologi- 
cally B.'s eyes are G.'s. They arouse the same con- 
scious state as G.'s eyes would arouse if present, and 
therefore the two are psychologically identical ; and 
after the idea of G.'s eyes has come to consciousness, 
it naturally brings with it the ideas of G.'s face, body, 
and the rest of his personality. Revival through simi- 
larity thus turns out to be but one instance of a part of 
an idea reinstating the whole. 



278 THE PRINCIPLES OF EDUCATION 

From the logical standpoint, the various forms of 
association can be grouped into two or more distinct 
classes, but this cannot be done from the psychological 
standpoint. From this standpoint they fall into a serial 
arrangement between two limits like the relation of 
habits to instincts. These limits are represented on the 
one extreme by the recall of one total idea by another 
total connected idea, and on the other extreme by the 
recall of one idea by but a trace of connection with 
another idea. Between these two extremes all degrees 
of connectedness may exist. Only the mind of the genius 
can run along very partial connections, while in a con- 
crete way even the minds of the lower animals can follow 
obvious connections. These connections form the basis 
on which animals are enabled to profit by past experi- 
ences. This basis holds also with man, but he can center 
his attention on connections that are altogether too fine 
to be noticed by the lower animals. Reasoning is nothing 
but a method of tracing out and following these partial 
connections toward a definitely conceived end. 

114. Pedagogical Applications. The methods for 
bringing about connections between ideas do not differ 
essentially from those used in habit formation. Psy- 
chologists distinguish four different principles on which 
the revivability of ideas depends. These principles are 
usually called the supplementary laws of association, 
and are: primacy, recency, frequency, and vividness. 
To this list should, for practical purposes, be added the 
factor of logical organization, although this is not logi- 
cally coordinate with the others. 

Primacy and recency are of but little practical im- 
portance in the schoolroom. It is true that first impres- 
sions are usually lasting and recent impressions are 



THE PSYCHOLOGICAL BASES OF TEACHING 279 

easily recalled, but the teacher cannot arrange to have 
everything come either first or last. Still, since first 
impressions are so important, the teacher should con- 
sciously aim to make them pleasant, for, according to 
the principle of the irradiation of feeling, they may 
color all subsequent impressions. The last impressions 
may in a similar way be led to shed a halo of pleasant- 
ness over all the related impressions that the student 
has previously received. 

Frequency is but another name for repetition. Other 
things being equal, those impressions will be most read- 
ily recalled that have been most often repeated. We do 
not forget our names, the alphabet, and kindred subjects 
because we are continually using them. This factor 
seems commonplace, and teachers for that reason often 
despise or neglect it, but psychological tests have shown 
that it possesses great effectiveness. No matter how well 
a system of ideas may be worked out logically, or how 
interesting it may be, repetition is still of primary im- 
portance in fixing it in the mind. 

Just as frequency stands for repetition, so vividness 
stands for interest. Other things being equal, we may 
say again that those impressions will be most readily 
recalled that were received with the greatest interest. 
Feeble interest means feeble attention, and feeble atten- 
tion means feeble modifications in the nerve tissue on 
which recall depends. Even repetition with feeble in- 
terest is of but small avail, while repetition with interest 
gives the best results. These tw^o factors are in no way 
incompatible, but are mutually supplementary. 

Logical organization consists of the association of 
facts according to their meaning. On the objective side, 
the basis of connection in this case is the relation of 



280 THE PRINCIPLES OF EDUCATION 

cause and effect, which is psychologically but a type 
of partial association. The separate causal connections 
that are observed may be condensed into principles or 
laws, briefly worded, and therefore they may serve as 
economical keys to the revival of extensive systems of 
related facts. The principles must indeed be remem- 
bered, but the mind is relieved of memorizing many 
separate facts outright, for these can always be deduced 
from the principles on which they depend. This is well 
illustrated by the results of the logical organization of 
geographical knowledge. The person who has this know- 
ledge based on the principles of mathematical and phys- 
ical geography has it always at his ready command. 
He does not need to burden his memory with the separate 
facts, for these he can infer from the principles. With 
the principles of climate in mind, he could, for example, 
readily deduce the seasons and general climatic condi- 
tions of Central America; and what is true of geogra- 
phy is true of all knowledge that is logically organized. 
Logical organization between different subjects is 
obtained by means of correlatioii. Subjects may be cor- 
related either simultaneously or in succession. Related 
subjects are correlated simultaneously when they appear 
upon the programme at the same time. Thus English 
history, English literature, and the geography of Eng- 
land may all be taught during the same term for the 
distinct advantage of each. Interrelationships will be 
seen by the students in this arrangement that would 
be missed if the subjects were taught at widely differ- 
ent times. But it is not always expedient to correlate re- 
lated subjects simultaneously. It may be impossible for 
various reasons to teach the three subjects mentioned 
in the same term, and it is almost sure to be impossible 



THE PSYCHOLOGICAL BASES OF TEACHING 281 

to teach English, Latin, and German grammar simulta- 
neously. In cases of this kind, correlation need by no 
means be abandoned, for subjects may be correlated 
in succession. This means that the interrelationships 
between subjects may be secured for the student even 
when the subjects are taught years apart. It merely 
rests upon the teacher to point out these relationships, 
or, by skillful assignment and questioning, to lead the 
students to discover them for themselves. The cross- 
connections between subjects are so important for the 
full appreciation of meaning and for the recall and use- 
fulness of knowledge, that teachers may be justly criti- 
cised for neglecting successive correlation as much as 
they do. 

115. Processes of Acquisition. The mind is ulti- 
imately an instrument for the use and appreciation of 
knowledge, but before knowledge can be used and ap- 
preciated, it must be acquired and retained. The topics 
that we have studied so far in this and the preceding 
chapter pertain to the retention and the conditions for 
the acquisition of knowledge, and it remains for us now 
to note hvie^j the processes that the mind uses in acquir- 
ing knowledge. Using a mechanical figure, we may say 
that we have studied the parts of the mental machine 
and the conditions necessary for its efficient working, 
and that we shall now proceed to study the working 
of the machine itself. 

The mental processes that yield knowledge are per- 
ception and inference. 

116. Perception. We are perceiving whenever we are 
reading meaning into our sense impressions. The asser- 
tion that a certain odor means a rose, the interpreta- 
tion of observed colors and dimensions as a book, and 



282 THE PRINCIPLES OF EDUCATION 

the recognition of a person by sight or by his voice, are 
all acts of perception. 

The data that are used in perception are of two kinds. 
They consist (1) of present sense impressions with, 
perhaps, reflexly aroused feeling attitudes, and (2) of 
implicitly revived memory material. In perceiving a 
familiar object, such as a book, one usually receives but 
one set of sensory impressions, while all the other ele- 
ments of the percept are supplied from within the 
mind. The sensory impressions consist of the extents 
of length and breadth, and the sensations of brightness 
and color, all of which are furnished by the eyes. Tac- 
tile and kinaesthetic sensations derived from handling 
the object may be added to this list, but they are not 
necessary to perceive a familiar object, such as a book. 
The meaning of these sensations is supplied by asso- 
ciation from within the mind itself, and it consists of 
the revival in condensed form of all previous experi- 
ences had with books. In this revived complex, not only 
previous sensory experiences, but also associated feeling 
attitudes play a part. The way we have in the past felt 
toward books is certainly no less a part of their mean- 
ing than the various sensory impressions we have re- 
ceived from them. 

The memory material that functions on the subjective 
side of the perceptive process is the concept. This com- 
plex is the one most generally used in all our mental 
equipment. It functions whenever we are using our 
knowledge, for all knowledge is held in the mind in the 
form of meaningful concepts. 

The concept may be defined as a symbol plus an asso- 
ciated core of meaning. The symbol is most frequently 
a word, but it may also be a mental jmage of some kind. 



THE PSYCHOLOGICAL BASES OF TEACHING 283 

The word " horse " is the symbol that we usually use to 
represent our knowledge of a well-known domestic ani- 
mal, but in our own thinking that knowledge may also 
be represented by an image of a horse. The meaning of 
"horse" consists of all the experiences, in condensed 
form, that we have had with horses. 

The data of which concepts are composed are ulti- 
mately both sensory and affective. The sensory data are 
furnished by the sensations coming from both the special 
and the organic senses, and the affective data consist 
of the instinctive feeling reactions coming from the 
brain itself. The concept of a vicious horse, for ex- 
ample, is obtained from visual, auditory, and perhaps 
kinsesthetic sensations, resulting from direct impression ; 
from kinaesthetic and other organic sensations result- 
ing from the expression of fear; and from the feeling 
of fear itself. The last item could not be admitted as a 
mental element distinct from the others by the adherents 
of the James-Lange theory of the emotions, but this 
theory in its extreme interpretation is now very generally 
rejected by psychologists and is disregarded here. 

Perception may be defined as the interpretation or 
assimilation of sense impressions by means of concepts. 
The resulting product is the percept, which may be de- 
fined as the consciousness of an object present to sense. 
The duality of the process of gaining percepts, however, 
should not be stressed. In actual practice perception 
must be looked upon as a unitary adaptive act of the 
entire organism. The objective and subjective aspects 
do not stand out as separate parts. This is especially 
true in the perception of familiar objects. Perception of 
this kind is a habit, — an adaptive habit, — in which 
there is but a minimum of revival from within. 



284 THE PRINCIPLES OF EDUCATION 

The two aspects of the perceptive process are well 
brought out when an unfamihar object is perceived. The 
writer usually leads his classes to analyze this process 
by exhibiting a small finger-nail clipper, an instrument 
with which experience has shown him that most members 
of a class are unfamiliar. On asking what the object is, 
a variety of answers is received. Pen-knife, cuff-holder, 
corkscrew, tweezer, and nail-file are usually among the 
answers given. Still, no one is sure of his interpretation, 
and not a few want to change their answers several 
times. This makes it easy to lead the members of the 
class to see that what they are doing is to ransack their 
minds for a concept that will fit the object seen. 

117. Perception in the Infant Mind. More light is 
thrown on the nature of the perceptive process by the 
manner in which knowledge begins in the infant mind. 
It is evident from the exposition already given that 
past knowledge is vitally concerned in perception. The 
sensory impressions coming from a book, a nail-clipper, 
or any other object could not be interpreted, or apper- 
ceived, if the mind had not had previous experience 
with similar objects. This function of previous experi- 
ence is so important that the statement is usually made 
that present sensory impressions are interpreted by 
knowledge already in the mind. This statement may be 
acceptable for ordinary discourse, but it does not meet 
the requirements of adequate scientific exposition. For 
if knowledge were obtained through the interpretation 
of present sensory impressions by experiences that had 
been previously acquired, how could the infant, who 
has no previous experiences, ever make a beginning 
at knowledge ? How could the infant begin the percep- 
tive, or the apperceptive process? Evidently the state- 



THE PSYCHOLOGICAL BASES OF TEACHING 285 

ment that past knowledge does the interpreting must be 
somewhat revised in order to make it possible to answer 
this question. 

In answering the question that we have raised, we 
must recur to the native instincts and capacities. It is 
true enough to say that the infant is born with his mind 
a blank so far as empirical knowledge is concerned, but 
this is far from saying that his mind is blank in every 
respect. On the contrary, the entire infant, including 
his mind, is an active, moving, squirming organism that 
has capacities both for entering into relation with its 
environment and for reacting to it. The infant has the 
senses with their cerebral connections, and the capacities 
for physical reaction and for conscious feeling, recogni- 
tion, and recall. Let us now suppose that the infant in 
his random movements strikes against an object and 
receives a " bump." This " bump " is reported to the 
spinal cord and the brain by means of the nerves. From 
the spinal cord the message is at once reflected to the 
muscles, where it gives rise to a reflex movement of 
withdrawal, but a part of the message continues to the 
brain, and there gives rise to a sensation : — in this case 
a sensation with an unpleasant feeling tone. The kin- 
aesthetic sensations arising from the reflex movements 
are also reported to the brain, where they become con- 
scious, and simultaneously with receiving the "bump" 
the object is seen and a visual picture of it is reported 
to the brain. All these neural processes modify the 
organism and leave it different from what it was. Psy- 
chologically, they become associated and are remembered. 
The next time the infant approaches this or a similar 
object he is not going to conduct himself as he did the 
first time. He has become a different being and is going 



286 THE PRINCIPLES OF EDUCATION 

to react differently. Even before he touches the object, 
the visual sensations received from it will by association 
reinstate the former unpleasant experience, and the in- 
fant will withdraw or avoid the object. This reaction will 
probably be largely reflex, but consciousness may also 
play a part, and as the situations become more complex, 
the guiding factor of consciousness rapidly increases. 

The process of acquiring the ability of conscious 
guidance is naturally more gradual in the infant than 
the above outline might imply, but it apparently does 
not differ from this outline in fundamental principle. 
After the child has reached the age of from twelve 
to eighteen months, however, the process may often 
become quite as rapid as the outline depicts. Just one 
distinctly pleasant or unpleasant experience may be 
suffi«ient for the recognition of that experience there- 
after. 

This exposition should make evident the inadequacy 
of the assertion that present sensory impressions are 
interpreted by previously acquired knowledge. This 
assertion is at best only a half truth, and it implies a 
separation between the mind and its knowledge that is 
artificial and misleading. The mind and its knowledge 
are organically one and cannot be separated except in 
thought. The mind is not a receptacle in which know- 
ledge is stored, but it is the result of inherited tenden- 
cies and acquired impressions that have all become 
integrated into a functional unity. Neurologically, 
knowledge consists in brain modifications, and as the 
mind is the counterpart of the brain, it consists on the 
mental side in modifications of the inherent mental 
powers of the brain. Perception must then be defined 
as the interpretation of present impressions hy the raind 



THE PSYCHOLOGICAL BASES OF TEACHING 287 

as modified hy previous experience. The illustration 
of the infant learning to know an object that has given 
it a "bump " brings out with added clearness that per- 
ception is an act of adaptation, and that in this act the 
entire mind participates, and not merely the knowledge 
that it possesses. 

With this conception of the perceptive process in 
mind, it is easy to see how knowledge may begin in the 
infant mind. The infant has a mind full of instinctive 
powers to begin with. These powers lead him sponta- 
neously into experiences, and the initial meaning of 
these experiences is revealed to the infant by the reac- 
tions to which the stimuli reflexly or instinctively give 
rise. These reactions would arise even if the impressions 
that provoke them did not enter consciousness, but these 
impressions, as well as the consequent reactions, do enter 
consciousness, their meaning is consciously recognized, 
they are remembered, and by means of association they 
become guides for future action. 

1 1 8. Apperception. In educational literature the word 
" perception " is now seldom met, but ever since the 
time of Herbart its place has been taken by the word 
" apperception." The questions that naturally arise from 
this fact are : What is the relation between perception 
and apperception ? and. What is the difference between 
the processes for which these words stand ? We have just 
seen that perception is the process by which present im- 
pressions are assimilated by previous experience held 
in the mind as concepts, and if we should judge from 
pedagogical literature, these words also define appercep- 
tion. It is in defining this word especially that the state- 
ment is usually made that present impressions are in- 
terpreted by knowledge already in the mind. This would 



288 THE PRINCIPLES OF EDUCATION 

lead to the conclusion that the two words are synonymous, 
and from the psychological standpoint this conclusion 
is essentially correct. But from the logical standpoint 
a slight difference may be made between them. When 
apperception is used, special reference is made to the 
interpretive or assimilative side of the perceptive pro- 
cess. This side, while forming an organic unity with the 
sensory side, may nevertheless be relatively separated 
and made the center of attention. Not only may this 
be done in abstraction, but in a degree it may be done 
also in practice. A scientist may at one phase of his 
investigations center his attention primarily on the sen- 
sory side of his experiences ; he may aim for the time 
being to get a complete survey of t\\efacts^ leaving their 
interpretation relatively in abeyance. This aspect of 
the process is in logic called observation. But after the 
observations have been made, then the apperceptive or 
interpretive side of the process may receive the attention, 
and the meaning of the facts may be sought. This, in 
fact, is always the scientific method of procedure. 

In pursuance of this logical distinction, " appercep- 
tion" has come to stand in educational literature pri- 
marily for the pedagogy of the concept and conception, 
instead of the pedagogy of perception in its entirety, 
which would include sensation as well as the concept. 
The doctrine of apperception teaches that a child can 
interpret present impressions only on the basis of past 
experiences as these are stored in his mind in the form 
of concepts or apperceptive bases, and that these con- 
cepts or apperceptive bases are ultimately obtained only 
from concrete experiences. It teaches further that 
unless the means for making connections between words 
and the realities for which words stand are provided by 



THE PSYCHOLOGICAL BASES OF TEACHING 289 

the teacher, these connections will in many instances 
never be made at all. In teaching geography, nature 
study, physics, chemistry, biology, physiology, and the 
like, first-hand observation of the objects themselves 
is the experience necessary for the formation of all 
basal concepts. Without such concepts (or appercep- 
tive bases), there is danger that the knowledge result- 
ing from all subsequent teaching will be exclusively 
verbal. 

But to say that all basal concepts must rest on expe- 
rience is not to say that no knowledge whatsoever can 
be obtained without actual experience with the objects 
concerned. There are many things in history, geogra- 
phy, and other subjects that it is impracticable, and 
even impossible, to experience in the concrete, but stiU 
we teach these subjects, and we may teach them well. 
This is made psychologically possible by the fact that 
the mind has the power to dissociate and recombine its 
experiences. We gain knowledge of objects not present 
to sense by recombining experiences that have at some 
time been present to sense. A child in a non-moun- 
tainous region may gain a fairly accurate idea of a 
mountain by recombining experiences with hills, rocks, 
trees, and distances. This process may be vitally as- 
sisted by pictures, but pictures really assist only in the 
process of recombination, for the meaning of pictures 
also depends ultimately on experience. 

119. Selective Attention, Inference, and Reasoning. 
After the scientist has collected his facts and is engaged 
in the process of interpreting them, he uses a mental 
process that is technically called " inference." But 
before we can describe this process we must first note 
another mental power upon which it depends. This 



290 THE PRINCIPLES OF EDUCATION 

power is discrimination or selective attention. Selec- 
tive attention is manifested whenever one aspect of a 
complex object, phenomenon, or idea is made the center 
of attention while the other aspects are relatively neg- 
lected. A person may look at an object like a pencil 
as a whole, or he may center his attention successively 
on its length, shape, color, weight, composition, hardness, 
function, etc., and while each aspect is in the focus of 
attention, the others are in the margin, or even below 
the threshold. In a similar way, anything else may 
be divided into elements. The process of dividing an 
object in this manner is called analysis, and when one 
aspect is retained in the attention at the expense of 
the others, it is said to have been abstracted. An idea, 
like sweetness, length, or weight, that is gained by means 
of abstraction is called an abstract idea. Such ideas 
do not stand for objects, but they symbolize aspects or 
qualities of things merely. People not bearing this fact 
in mind are frequently led into error by uncritically 
assuming that the words they use have separate and 
distinct counterparts in reality. 

Inference may be defined as that mental process by 
means of which a conclusion is reached on the basis of 
known facts and principles. The conclusion, while based 
upon these facts and principles, is not explicitly and 
completely contained in them, but goes beyond them, 
and this going beyond the experience in hand is the 
distinguishing characteristic of inference. This charac- 
teristic may be illustrated by a chemist who is making 
a first-hand study of the products that result from the 
union of acids and metals. After carefuUy testing and 
analyzing perhaps a dozen different combinations, he 
may make the sweeping assertion that a salt is always 



THE PSYCHOLOGICAL BASES OF TEACHING 291 

among the products of the union between an acid and 
a metal. This assertion clearly goes beyond the dozen 
individual instances or truths upon which it rests. 

In making an inference no mental powers are used 
that we have not already considered. These powers are 
mainly comparison and contrast, analysis, abstraction, 
and association. In the actual process of inferring, these 
powers are always applied to facts,, including by this 
word abstract principles as well as concrete experiences, 
and the person who does the inferring must have a goal 
in mind toward which to direct his thought. Without 
the facts there would be no basis for the inference, while 
without the goal there would be no guide in handling 
the facts. The intellect can act only under the guidance 
of definite purposes, and it must have data with which to 
work. The chemist mentioned above, for example, must 
start with a measurably clear idea of what he is aiming 
to accomplish, and before he can draw any conclusions 
he must have the facts of a sufficient number of individ- 
ual reactions between acids and metals before him. As 
a matter of fact he has in his mind also one or more 
hypotheses, which are tentative conclusions of what he 
expects to find. In making his inference he begins by 
analyzing his facts and recording all aspects that might 
in any way prove significant. Next, aided and guided 
by his hypotheses, he abstracts each aspect in succes- 
sion and compares it with the aspects in the other reac- 
tions. If it is common to only one or a few, he rejects 
it as being of no significance for the present inference; 
but if it is found to be common to all, he at once associates 
the agreeing aspects into a general truth or principle 
•which he accepts as his conclusion. Let us assume his 
conclusion to be that one characteristic product result- 



292 THE PRINCIPLES OF EDUCATION 

ing from the chemical union of acids and metals is 
a salt. To reinforce this conclusion, he may next 
contrast the aspects of his reactions with the aspects of 
reactions resulting from chemicals other than acids 
and metals. If these reactions do not contain a salt, 
they in so far support his original conclusion. 

A precisely similar mental process is employed in 
inferring, for example, the climate of western California 
from the known facts of California's geographical posi- 
tion and the principles of climate. California is located 
in the north temperate zone on the Pacific Ocean in the 
region of the prevailing westerly winds. Analyzing 
these facts and comparing them with the principles of 
climate, the conclusion may be abstracted on the basis 
of association by similarity that western California has 
a warm, equable climate, with a wet season in the win- 
ter and a dry season in the summer. 

In discussing inference the student must guard 
against the impression that this process is distinct from, 
and unrelated to, perception. A few pages back we 
made the statement that there were two mental pro- 
cesses that give rise to knowledge, — perception and 
inference, — but this is only relatively true. Inference 
is only the interpretive aspect involved in all perception 
become explicit and carried on in the focus of atten- 
tion. AU perception involves inference, and this may 
be either implicit or explicit. When a person hears a 
noise in the street and says a team is driving by, the con- 
clusion is really inferred, but it may follow so directly 
upon the auditory impressions that the ground upon 
which it is based does not enter consciousness. That 
is, the inference is an implicit one that results immediately 
from the operation of the law of association with a mini- 



THE PSYCHOLOGICAL BASES OF TEACHING 293 

mum of comparison and selective attention. But if an 
unfamiliar noise is occurring* in the street, no such im- 
mediate interpretation follows. The noise will arouse 
memories of similar noises heard before, with which the 
present noise will be compared feature by feature. On 
the basis of this analysis and comparison, the conclusion 
may be reached that the noise is caused by a traction 
engine passing by. This is an inference of the explicit 
type, which may be defined as an inference that is con- 
scious of its ground. The instances of the chemist and 
the climate of California belong to this type. 

120. Inference and Reasoning Distinguished. Rea- 
soning may be distinguished from inference by say- 
ing that it consists of a chain of connected inferences, 
all bearing upon one final conclusion. This makes 
the inference one of the unitary steps in the reason- 
ing process. It is seldom that one inference suffices in 
interpreting or explaining a problem, but a series of 
inferences is required to rationalize it fully. In deter- 
mining the climate of a place a number of inferences 
are practically always required, so that we should really 
speak of reasoning out the climate rather than inferring 
it. Similarly, it is proper to say that we reason out a 
proposition in geometry, the conditions of plant life, 
the laws of falling bodies, and the like. In each case 
a series of inferences is required to give us our final 
conclusion. 

From the psychological side we have now sufficiently 
described the processes of inference and reasoning, but 
on the objective or logical side this description should 
be carried one step farther. If we examine the instances 
of the chemist with his acids and metals, and the cli- 
mate of California again, it becomes evident that in the 



294 THE PRINCIPLES OF EDUCATION 

former the inference proceeds from particular facts to 
a general conclusion, while in the latter it proceeds 
from facts and general principles to a particular con- 
clusion. Inference or reasoning of the first type is called 
inductive^ and of the second type deductive. The men- 
tal processes involved in each are the same, and the 
difference between them consists in the data that are 
used. This difference may be described by saying that 
inductive reasoning begins with the relatively particular 
and ends with the relatively general, while deductive 
proceeds in the reverse fashion. Deduction always in- 
volves one or more general truths or principles in its 
given data, but it also involves relatively particular 
facts. Teclmically speaking, the major premise is 
general, while the minor premise is particular. This 
makes it impossible to take the presence of particular 
facts in the premises as the criterion for distinguishing 
inductive reasoning. But induction may be distin- 
guished by the fact that it always leads to a generali- 
zation, which may be either a rule, a definition, a princi- 
ple, or a. law ; while deduction may be distinguished by 
the fact that it always either anticipates or explains a 
relatively particular fact. 

It is highly important for the teacher to understand 
the reasoning process and to distinguish between induc- 
tion and deduction in order to teach with intelligence 
and effectiveness, but to go into the ways and means 
of applying these things in the schoolroom would take 
us too far afield in the Principles of Teaching. We 
may say, however, in concluding this topic, that in 
teaching children to reason, the teacher should see to it 
(1) that the children have a clear conception of the 
goal to be reached ; (2) that they possess a sufficient 



THE PSYCHOLOGICAL BASES OF TEACHING 295 

number of representative facts; (3) that they proceed 
in a systematic way in analyzing and comparing these 
facts ; (4) that they make intelligent use of hypotheses 
in drawing their conclusion ; and (5) that they make 
a systematic attempt to verify and to apply the conclu- 
sion they have reached. 

EXERCISES 

1. May the processes of judging and inferring be psycho- 
logically or logically distinguished ? 

2. Where may simultaneous correlation be used more ex' 
tensively, in the lower or in the higher grades ? Why ? 

3. How would you proceed in leading a class to memorize 
a short poem ? What is your reason for each step ? 

4. Has psychological thought gained or lost by the intro- 
duction of the word " apperception " ? Pedagogical thought ? 

5. Name five or more specific topics that should be taught 
inductively. Name five or more that should be taught deduc- 
tively. 

6. Distinguish between the psychological and the logical 
sides of reasoning. With which of these sides is the teacher 
more concerned ? 

7. Consult a number of text-books in psychology and de- 
termine if the words "judging," "inferring," "reasoning," 
and " judgment " are used in the same sense by all writers. 

8. Between what studies would you recognize the principle 
of simultaneous correlation in framing the course of study ? 
May successive correlation receive recognition in framing 
the course of study ? 

9. What are the five steps of the Herbartian lesson plan ? 
Might these steps be advantageously modified ? Are these 
steps applicable to the deductive lesson as well as to the 
inductive ? 

10. A high school graduate did not know that the Julius 
Caesar studied in the Latin class, the history class, and the 



296 raE PRINCIPLES OF EDUCATION 

literature class was the same person. What principle of 
teaching did his teachers neglect ? 

11. Point out the place of logical organization in teaching 
history ; grammar ; botany ; geography ; arithmetic ; spelling ; 
physics ; and Latin. What is the relation of logical organi- 
zation to memory? May logical organization ever entirely 
displace specific memory work in the school ? 

12. A child in the grades did not know that the Missis- 
sippi River studied in the geography class was the same as 
the Mississippi River flowing past his native city. What prin- 
ciple of teaching did his teachers neglect ? Give other similar 
instances of verbalism, pointing out how they might have 
been avoided. 

COLLATERAL READING 

Baglet, Educative Process, chaps, iv, viii, ix, x, and xi. 
James, Talks to Teachers, 116-168. 
KiRKPATRiCK, Inductive Psychology, 35-92. 
Miller, The Psychology of Thinking, 189-298. 
Thorndike, Elements of Psychology, 215-271. 
Thorndike, Principles of Teaching, chaps, iv, viii, ix, and x. 



BIBLIOGRAPHY AND REFERENCES 

1. Adams, Herbartian Psychology Applied to Education ; 
Heath, 1897. 

2. American Journal of Psychology ; July, 1907. 

3. Angell, Psychology ; Holt, 1908. 

4. Bagley, The Educative Process ; Macmillan, 1905. 

5. BAisr, Education as a Science ; Appleton, 1878. 

6. Bennett, Formal Discipline ; Teachers College, New 
York, 1907. 

7. Bennett and Bristol, The Teaching of Latin and 
Greek ; Longmans, 1906. 

8. Boone, The Science of Education ; Scribners, 1904. 

9. Brown, E. E., The Making of our Middle Schools ; 
Longmans, 1905. 

10. Brown, J. F., The American High School; Mac- 
millan, 1909. 

11. Butler, The Meaning of Education ; Macmillan, 
1898. 

12. Chancellor, Motives^ Ideals^ and Values in Edu,car 
tion ; Houghton Mifflin Co., 1907. 

13. De Garmo, Interest and Education; Macmillan, 
1902. 

14. De Garmo, Principles of Secondary Editcationf 
Vol. I; MacmiUan, 1907. 

15. Dewey, The Educational Situation ; Chicago, 1902. 

16. Dewey, Ethical Principles Underlying Education ; 
Chicago, 1903. 

17. Dewey, Interest as Related to Will ; Chicago, 1897. 

18. Dewey, The School and Society ; Chicago, 1900. 

19. Dewey, The Child and the Curriculum ; Chicago, 
1902. 

20. Dexter, History of Education in the United States ; 
MacmiUan, 1906. 



298 BIBLIOGRAPHY AND REFERENCES 

21. Education, November, 1906. 

22. Education, May, 1909. 

23. Educational Review, March, 1907. 

24. Educational Revieiv, June, 1908. 

25. Educational Review, September, 1908. 

26. Farrington, Strayer, and Jacobs, Observation and 
Practice Teaching ; Iowa City, 1909. 

27. FiSKE, The Meaning of Lifancy ; Houghton Mifflin 
Co., 1909. 

28. FouiLL:fiE (Greenstreet), Education from a Na- 
tional Standpoint ; Appleton, 1892. 

29. Froebel (Hailman), Education of Man ; Appleton, 
1892. 

30. GoRDY, A Broader Elementary Education ; Hinds 
and Noble, 1903. 

31. Hanus, a Modern School ; Macmillan, 1904. 

32. Hanus, Educational Aims and Educational Values ; 
Macmillan, 1899. 

33. Harris, Psychologic Foundations of Education; 
Appleton, 1898. 

34. Heck, Mental Discipline and Educational Values ; 
John Lane Co., New York, 1909. 

35. HoLLisTER, High School Administration; Heath, 
1909. 

36. HoRNE, Philosophy of Education ; Macmillan, 1904. 

37. HoRNE, Psychological Principles of Education ; Mac- 
millan, 1906. 

38. Huxley, Science and Education ; Appleton, 1899. 

39. James, Psychology, Vol. I ; Holt, 1890. 

40. James, Talks to Teachers ; Holt, 1899. 

41. JuDD, Genetic Psychology for Teachers ; Appleton, 
1903. 

42. JuDD, Psychology ; Scribners, 1907. 

43. Keith, Elementary Education ; Scott, Foresman & 
Co., 1905. 

44. Lang, Educational Creeds of the XIX Century ; 
Barnes, 1898. 



BIBLIOGRAPHY AND REFERENCES 299 

45. Lange and De Garmo, Herharfs Outlines of Educoy 
tional Doctrine ; Macmillan, 1901. 

46. Lloyd and Bigelow, The Teaching of Biology ; 
Longmans, 1904. 

47. Locke, Thoughts Concerning Education. 

48. Matthews, Principles of Intellectual Education ; 
Putnams, 1907. 

49. McMuRRY, Elements of General Method ; Macmillan, 
1903. 

50. McMuRRT, How to Study and Teaching How to 
Study ; Houghton Mifflin Co., 1909. 

51. Miller, The Psychology of Thinking ; Macmillan, 
1909. 

52. Monroe, Brief Course in the History of Education ; 
Macmillan, 1907. 

53. Monroe, Text-Book in the History of Education ; 
Macmillan, 1905. 

54. MuNSTERBERG, Psychology and the Teacher ; Apple- 
ton, 1909. 

55. Myers, First-year Mathematics ; Chicago, 1907. 

56. O'Shea, Dynamic Factors in Education ; Macmillan, 
1906. 

57. O'Shea, Education as Adjustment ; Longmans, 1903. 
h%. O'Shea, Social Development and Education ; Hough- 
ton Mifflin Co., 1909. 

59. Painter, Great Pedagogical Essays; American 
Book Co., 1905. 

60. Paulsen (Thilly), ^4 System of Ethics ; Scribners, 
1903. 

61. Payne, J., Lectures on Education^ Vol. I ; Long- 
mans. 

62. Payne, W. H., Education of Teachers; Johnson, 
Richmond, 1901. 

63. Putnam, A Manual of Pedagogics ; Silver, Burdett 
& Co., 1895. 

64. RoARK, Method in Education ; American Book Co., 
1899. 



800 BIBLIOGRAPHY AND REFERENCES 

65. RosENKRANZ (Brackett), PMlosophy of Education ; 
Appleton, 1892. 

66. School Review ; March, 1908. 

67. Seashore, Elementary Experiments in Psychology ; 
Holt, 1908. 

68. Smith, The Teaching of Elementary Mathematics; 
MacmiUan, 1900. 

69. Smith and Hall, The Teaching of Chemistry and 
Physics ; Longmans, 1904. 

70. Spencer, Education ; Appleton, 1874. 

71. Starbuck, The Psychology of Religion; Scribners, 
1899. 

72. Swift, Mind in the Making ; Scribners, 1908. 

73. Thomson, Heredity ; Putnams, 1907. 

74. Thorndike, Educational Psychology ; New York, 
1903. 

75. Thorndike, Elements of Psychology ; New York, 
1905. 

76. Thorndike, Principles of Teaching ; New York, 
1906. 

77. Vincent, Social Mind and Education ; Macmillan, 
1897. 



INDEX 



Abstraction, 290. 

Academic specialization, 5 ; prep- 
aration for grade teachers, 6 ; 
for country school teachers, 7 ; 
for high school teachers, 7. 

Acquired traits, transmissibility 
of, 30. 

Acquisition, processes of, 281. 

Adjustment, 40, 41, 47 ; meaning 
of, 52, 63 ; and educational val- 
ues, 154 ; and perception, 283. 

Adjustment aim, prevalence of, 
57. 

-Esthetic appreciation, 139, 145. 

Agencies that educate, 244 ; clas- 
sified, 244 ; formal, 245 ; in- 
formal, 256 ; summarized, 258. 

Aim of education, 7, 8, 38, 54 ; es- 
sential qualities of, 71. 

Analysis, 290. 

Ancient literature in translation, 
191 ; objections to, 193. 

Angell, F., 104, 113. 

Angell, J. R., 76, 275. 

Animal behavior, 21. 

Animal series, man and, 20. 

Animism, 247 ; and science, 248 ; 
and primitive life, 249. 

Apperception, 122, 287. 

Apperceptive basis for progress, 
48 ; and concept, 287. 

Applied and primary sciences, 
173. 

Apprentice system, and vocational 
training, 182; as educational 
agency, 255. 

Aristotle, 184, 193. 

Arithmetic, amount needed, 208. 

Arrested adjustment, causes and 
remedies of, 47. 

Association, and habit, 271 ; prin- 
ciple of, 276 ; classes of, 278 ; 
pedagogical applications, 278 ; 
supplementary laws of, 278. 

Astronomy, value of, 212. 



Athenian philosophers, 136. 
Avocational training, 236; and 

school interests, 237 ; should be 

aimed for, 240. 

Bacon, Francis, 232. 
Bacteriology, value of, 219. 
Bagley, W. C, 58, 59, 64, 88, 99, 

101, 107, 136, 165. 
Barbarism, 250; and savagery, 

250. 
Basal subjects, 7 ; distinguished 

from professional, 9. 
Basedow, J. B., 83. 
Bennett, C. J. C, 95, 101, 103,105. 
Bentham, J., 147. 
Bergstrom, J. A., 111. 
Bible, 193. 

Bibliography and references, 297. 
Bigelow, M. A., 217, 224. 
Biological bases of education, 20. 
Biological sciences, value of, 214. 
Biology, 7, 10, 40; preparatory 

value of, 216 ; and evolution, 

217. 
Botany, value of, 214. 
Brain exercise, 157. 
Brier, W. J., 192. 
Brown, Dr. E. E., 97, 101, 178. 
Browning, Robert, 150. 
Butler, N. M., 57, 177, 178, 223, 

242. 

Carnegie Institute of Washington, 

233. 
Channels of transfer, 112. 
Charlemagne, 252. 
Chemistry, value of, 209. 
Child-nature recognized, 83. 
Child psychology, 9. 
Child study, 9. 
Church, educational function of, 

253. 
Citizenship, education for, 182. 
Civics, value of, 203. 



302 



INDEX 



Classical languages, 13, 80, 82; 
value of, 193; needed by spe- 
cialists, 197. 

Classroom teacher, 170. 

Colburn, Zerah, 96. 

Comenius, J. A., 232. 

Complete living, the aim of, 67 ; 
meaning of, 68. 

Composite ideals, 163. 

Concept, of method, 113; defined, 
282 ; data of, 283 ; and apper- 
ceptive basis, 288 ; basal, 288 ; 
and knowledge, 289. 

Congenital traits, 31. 

Content aims, 57. 

Content and formal values dis- 
tinguished, 156 ; relation of, 
159. 

Content, form, and expression, 
179. 

Contiguity and similarity, 276. 

Conventional value, 130, 136. 

Coover and Angell, 104, 113. 

Correlation. 280. 

Cross-education, 110. 

Cultural values, distinguished 
from instrumental, 135 ; recog- 
nition and terminology, 135 ; 
analyzed, 137 ; individual, 152. 

Curriculum, reform of, 84 ; nature 
of, 167 ; its scientific determi- 
nation, 168 ; a perpetual instru- 
ment, 170 ; outlined, 179 ; ad- 
ministration of, 225 ; distin- 
guished from course of study, 
225. 

Darwin, Charles, 100, 111. 

De Garmo, Charles, 63, 177, 180. 

Dewey, John, 58, 64, 88, 136, 202, 
231, 266, 275. 

Dickens, Charles, 140. 

Discipline and training distin- 
guished, 76. 

Discrimination, 290. 

Domestic art and science, 204. 

Dumont, P., 147. 

Dynamic method, 50. 

Earth's sciences, value of, 213. 
Ebert and Meuman, 105. 
Education, defined, 39 ; and pro- 
gress, 46 ; effects of, summarized, 



241 ; and interests, 263 ; and life, 

266. 
Educational field, content of, 2 ; 

outlined, 18. 
Educational psychology, 12, 70, 

174. 
Educational values, instrumental, 

119; cultural, 135; formal, 156; 

specific, 187. 
Effort and interest, 267 ; and strain, 

268. 
Elementary education, function of, 

227. 
Emerson, R. W., 150. 
Environment, 38, 42. 
Esperanto, 113. 
Ethics, 7, 8, 10 ; value of, 204. 
Eugenics,, 33. 

Evolutionary point of view, 7, 40. 
Expression and impression, 183. 
Expression subjects, 181. 

Faculty psychology, 93. 

Feeling and interest, 262. 

Fine arts, value of, 197 ; methods 
of study, 199. 

Foreign languages, value of, 193 ; 
introductory value of, 195 ; prac- 
tical value of, 196. 

Form and content, 161 ; distin- 
guished, 180. 

Formal agencies of education, 245. 

Formal aims, 72 ; acceptance of, 
72 ; distinguished from content 
aims, 72 ; criticised, 79 ; content 
included, 81. 

Formal discipline, 13, 76; illus- 
trated, 77, 84 ; discussed, 91 ; 
origin, 92; fallacies regarding, 
94 ; literature classified, 95 ; de- 
ductive discussions, 96 ; induc- 
tive investigations, 101 ; appli- 
cations, 115 ; discountenanced, 
162. 

Formal values, 116, 156; distin- 
guished from content, 156 ; ele- 
ments of, 156 ; relation to con- 
tent, 159 ; in classroom, 162 ; of 
grammar, 189. 

Formalism, 82. 

Fouill^e, A., 79, 92, 93. 

Fracker, G. C, 106, 112. 

Frequency, 279. 



INDEX 



303 



Froebel, F., 73, 75, 82, 83, 84, 87. 
Function, localization of, 93, 94. 

Galton, Francis, 35. 

General method, 19. 

Generalized habits, 114. 

Geography, value of, 201 ; com- 
mercial, 204. 

Geolog-y, value of, 213. 

Goethe, 193. 

Good character, the aim of, 65. 

Graduate work, 17. 

Grammar, value of, 189. 

Grammar Schools, 229. 

Greek. (See Classical languages.) 

Grouping of subjects, 6 ; essential 
for culture, 6. 

Gymnasium, 229. 

Habit and ideals, 107, 114. 

Habit formation, 158, 270 ; and 
association, 27 1 ; motives for, 
272 ; breaking habits, 273. 

Harris, W. T., 89, 176, 178. 

Hemispheres, function of , 21, 23. 

Henderson, E. N., 111. 

Herbart, J. F., 62, 64, 82, 83, 84, 
86, 87. 

Herbartians, 63, 96, 177. 

High schools, function of, 228 ; 
history of, 230. 

Higher education, function of, 231. 

Highest Good, 39, 55. 

Hinsdale, B. A., 99, 112. 

Historical considerations, 82. 

History, of education, 12 ; of phi- 
losophy, 8 f value of ,1202. 

Hoipe, educational function of, 254. 

Home, H. H., 57, 101, 137, 185, 
259, 275. 

Human and animal life contrasted, 
42. 

Humanities, 117, 180; value of, 187. 

Humor, 140. 

Huxley, T. H., 78, 85, 89. 

Ideals, 108, 114; developed in 
school, 163 ; composite, 163. 

Identical elements, 112. 

Identity, of aim, 114, 161 ; of pro- 
cedure or method, 112, 160; of 
substance, 112, 161. 

Imagination, 141. 



Induction and deduction distin- 
guished, 294. 

Induction investigations, 101. 

Infancy, period of, 28. 

Infant mind, perception in the, 284. 

Inference, defined, 290; illustrated, 
291 ; and perception, 292 ; dis- 
tinguished from reasoning, 293 ; 
inductive and deductive, 294. 

Informal agencies of education, 
265. 

Instinct and intelligence, develop- 
ment of, 20 ; basis of, 22 ; rela- 
tion, 23. 

Instincts and capacities, 261 ; re- 
lation to interests, 262. 

Instrumental values, 119; distin- 
guished from cultural, 135. 

Intelligence, birth of, 22 ; 110 ; 
and retentiveness, 269. 

Interests, 262 ; analyzed, 262 ; and 
education, 263 ; as ends and 
means, 263 ; right and wrong 
uses of, 265 ; and effort, 267 ; and 
strain, 268 ; and scholastic psy- 
chology, 268. 

Interference of training. 111. 

Introductory value, 120. 

James, WiUiam, 23, 88, 101, 105, 
240, 275. 

James-Lange theory of the emo- 
tions, 283. 

Jerome, J. K., 140. 

Jesus, 144. 

Judd, C. H., 48, 67, 111. 

Lamb, Charles, 121. 

Latin. (See Classical languages.) 

Liberalizing value, 137, 143 ; and 
mental reconstruction, 149 ; of 
expression subjects, 183 ; of lan- 
guage study, 194; of history, 
202 ; of mathematics, 209 ; of 
physical sciences, 210 ; of earth 
sciences, 21.3 ; of biological sci- 
ences, 214; of zoology, 218; of 
logic, 221 ; of philosophy, 221 ; 
of vocational training, 235. 

Life, human and animal, contrast- 
ed, 42. 

Literature, value of, 191 ; ancient, 
191. 



304 



INDEX 



Lloyd, F. E., 216. 
Localization of function, 93, 94. 
Locke, John, 77, 131. 
Logic, 7, 8 ; value of, 220. 
Logical organization, 279. 
Lyc^e, 229. 

Man and animal series, 20. 

Man's life, characteristics of, 42. 

Mark Twain, 140. 

Mathematics, value of, 207; for 
specialists, 208 ; prescribed, 209 ; 
correlation of, 210. 

McMurry, C. A., 62, 63. 

McMurry, F. M., 162. 

Memory, for poetry, 101 ; experi- 
ments on, 105 ; retentiveness, 
269 ; associative, 276 ; and habit, 
276 ; pedagogical applications, 
278 ; and perception, 282. 

Mental and spiritual life, 43. 

Mental reconstruction, period of, 
146. 

Mental sciences, 220. 

Meuman, E., 105. 

Mill, J. S., 147. 

Moral, life, 45 ; aim, 62, 66 ; dis- 
tinguished from social, 66; value, 
129. 

Mother tongue, value of, 188. 

Natural sciences, 180; value of, 

207. 
Nervous system, 21, 41. 
Neurology, 8. 
Nodes of thought for studies, 172 ; 

two types, 173. 

Objective aims, 73. 
Observation of teaching, 16. 
Organization, logical, 279. 
Orientation, need of, 1. 
Ornamental value, 1.31. 
O'Shea, M. V., 57, 60, 101, 112. 

Paulsen, F., 39. 

Payne, J., 81, 88. 

Payne, W. H., 79, 137, 159, 165. 

Perception, 281 ; and the concept, 
282; and habit, 283; defined, 
283, 286 ; in infant mind, 284 ; 
and apperception, 287 ; and in- 
ference, 292. 



Permanency of school interests, 

237. 
Pestalozzi, H., 74, 81, 83, 84. 
Philosophy, 7, 8; value of, 180, 

221 ; of education, 11. 
Physical culture, 200. 
Physical sciences, value of, 210. 
Physics and chemistry, value of, 

211. 
Physiology, 8 ; value of, 219. 
Pillsbury, W. B., 106. 
Plato, 75, 184, 193. 
Play, 138, 261. 
Playground, as educational agen- 

cy, 257. 
Political economy, value of, 206. 
Practical education, relation to 

theoretical, 184 ; 256 ; value of, 

122. 
Practice teaching, 16. 
Preparatory value, 120. 
Primacy and recency, 278. 
Primitive education, 245. 
Principles, of education, 10, 11, 

12, 260 ; of teaching, 10, 11, 12, 

19, 70, 174, 260, 294. 
Processes of acquisition, 281. 
Professional reviews, 5, 15, 16 ; 

subjects distinguished from 

basal, 9. 
Professions, distinguished from. 

trades, 2 ; basis of, 3, 4. 
Progress, and education, 46 ; real- 
ization of, 47 ; and curriculum, 

51. 
Psychological, aims, 73 ; bases of 

teaching, 260. 
Psychology, 7 ; 10 ; function of, 8 ; 

faculty, 93 ; value of, 220 ; scho- 
lastic, 268. 
Pure and applied sciences, 173. 

Reaction time, 110. 
Realistic movement, 84. 
Reasoning, and inference, 293 ; 

inductive and deductive, 294 ; 

principles of teaching, 294. 
Recency, 278. 
Reconstruction, period of mental, 

146. 
Re-created environment, 42. 
Rein, W., 99. 
Renaissance, 82. 



INDEX 



305 



Research university, 232. 

Retentiveness, 269; and associa- 
tion, 270. 

Rhetoric, value of, 190. 

Roark, R. N., 92. 

Rockefeller Institute for Medical 
Research, 233. 

Rosenkranz, J. K. F., 25. 

Rousseau, J.,, 83. 

Ruediger, W. C, 147. 

Savagery and barbarism, 250. 

School, administration, 13, 14 ; hy- 
giene, 8, 13, 14 ; management, 
13, 14 ; supervision, 13, 14 ; two- 
fold function of, 25 ; system, 
225'; lines of cleavage, 226 ; evo- 
lution of, 245; and church, 251, 
253 ; Mohammedan, 251 ; Jew- 
ish, 251 ; and state, 252. 

Seashore, C. E., 159. 

Secondary education, function of, 
228. 

Selective attention, 289. 

Selective function of education, 25. 

Sense-discrimination, 103. 

Sentimental value, 136, 137, 139, 
145 ; of mathematics, 209 ; of 
earth sciences, 213 ; of biological 
sciences, 214. 

Sentimentalism, 141. 

Shakespeare, 193. 

Similarity, 276. 

Smith, D. E., 136. 

Social aim, 58. 

Social efficiency, 58, 59, 63. 

Social prescription, 233. 

Social value, meaning of, 133, 
204. 

Socializing value, 127 ; of expres- 
sion subjects, 183 ; of sciences, 
201 ; of vocational training, 235. 

Sociological aims, 73. 

Sociology, 7, 10, 204. 

Special method, 15, 19. 

Specialization of powers, 24, 96. 

Speech, value of correct, 188. 

Spelling, value of, 188. 

Spencer, Herbert, 64, 67, 69, 132, 
136, 154, 164, 274. 



Squire, Mrs. C. R., 107. 

Starbuck, E. D., 147. 

Steam engineering, 10. 

Stein, H. F. K., 74. 

Strain, relation to interest and 
efeort, 268. 

Studies, origin of, 171 ; relation of, 
175 ; classification of, 176. 

Subject, meaning of, 187. 

Subjective aims, 73. 

Subjective and objective element? * 
in education, 66. 

Subject-matter, fundamental cri- 
terion for selection of, 169. 

Teacher's training, 5 ; for grades, 
6 ; for country schools, 7 ; lor 
high schools, 7. 

Tennyson, Alfred, 121. 

Theory and practice, 181. 

Thomson, J. Arthur, 35. 

Thorndike, E. L., 26, 31, 37, 95, 
96, 98, 101, 102, 107, 112, 237. ' 

Time allotment, 169. 

Trades and professions distin- 
guished, 2. 

Training distinguished from dis- 
cipline, 76. 

Transference and spread of train- 
ing distinguished, 112. 

Translation of lesson, 195. 

Travel, value of, 257. 

Twain, Mark, 140. 

Unf oldment, the doctrine of, 74. 
University of Wisconsin, 233. 

Vilas bequest, 233. 
Vividness, 279. 

Vocational training, 234 ; value of, 
235. 

Winch, W. H., 106. 
Wisconsin, University of, 233. 
Woodley, O. I., 65. 
Woodworth, R. S., 102, 107. 
Word analysis, 195. 

ZiUer, Tuiskon, 97, 98, 101, 112. 
Zoology, value of, 217. 



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